Spatio-temporal filtering with morphological operators for robust cell migration estimation in "in-vivo" images

The understanding of the embryogenesis in living systems requires reliable quantitative analysis of the cell migration throughout all the stages of development. This is a major challenge of the "in-toto" reconstruction based on different modalities of "in-vivo" imaging techniques -spatio-temporal resolution and image artifacts and noise. Several methods for cell tracking are available, but expensive manual interaction -time and human resources- is always required to enforce coherence. Because of this limitation it is necessary to restrict the experiments or assume an uncontrolled error rate. Is it possible to obtain automated reliable measurements of migration? can we provide a seed for biologists to complete cell lineages efficiently? We propose a filtering technique that considers trajectories as spatio-temporal connected structures that prunes out those that might introduce noise and false positives by using multi-dimensional morphological operators.

Methodology for reconstructing early zebrafish development from in vivo multiphoton microscopy

Investigating cell dynamics during early zebrafish embryogenesis requires specific image acquisition and analysis strategies. Multiharmonic microscopy, i.e., second- and third-harmonic generations, allows imaging cell divisions and cell membranes in unstained zebrafish embryos from 1- to 1000-cell stage. This paper presents the design and implementation of a dedicated image processing pipeline (tracking and segmentation) for the reconstruction of cell dynamics during these developmental stages. This methodology allows the reconstruction of the cell lineage tree including division timings, spatial coordinates, and cell shape until the 1000-cell stage with minute temporal accuracy and micrometer spatial resolution. Data analysis of the digital embryos provides an extensive quantitative description of early zebrafish embryogenesis.