Coupled segmentation of nuclear and membrane-bound macromolecules through voting and multiphase level set. Issue 3 (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chang, Hang; Wen, Quan; Parvin, Bahram
• Is Part Of: Pattern recognition. Volume 48:Issue 3(2015:Mar.)
• Page Start: 882
• Page End: 893
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: Segmentation of membrane-bound macromolecules -- Perceptual grouping -- Multi-phase level set -- Nuclear segmentation -- Tissue architecture; Pattern perception -- Periodicals; Perception des structures -- Périodiques; Patroonherkenning; 006.4
• DOI: 10.1016/j.patcog.2014.10.005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0031-3203

Abstract

Abstract: Membrane-bound macromolecules play an important role in tissue architecture and cell–cell communication, and is regulated by almost one-third of the genome. At the optical scale, one group of membrane proteins expresses themselves as linear structures along the cell surface boundaries, while others are sequestered; and this paper targets the former group. Segmentation of these membrane proteins on a cell-by-cell basis enables the quantitative assessment of localization for comparative analysis. However, such membrane proteins typically lack continuity, and their intensity distributions are often very heterogeneous; moreover, nuclei can form large clump, which further impedes the quantification of membrane signals on a cell-by-cell basis. To tackle these problems, we introduce a three-step process to (i) regularize the membrane signal through iterative tangential voting, (ii) constrain the location of surface proteins by nuclear features, where clumps of nuclei are segmented through a delaunay triangulation approach, and (iii) assign membrane-bound macromolecules to individual cells through an application of multi-phase geodesic level-set. We have validated our method using both synthetic data and a dataset of 200 images, and are able to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach with superior performance. Supplementary Information : One online video example can be found with: http://vision.lbl.gov/People/hang/evolving_fronts.gif Abstract : Highlights: Iterative tangential voting for membrane signal regularization. Nuclear segmentation via triangulation on points with curvature maximum. Membrane assignment to individual cells through multiphase geodesic levelset.