Automated Tracing of Horizontal Neuron Processes During Retinal Development

Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011 · NIH Public Access

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-010-0390-1· OSTI ID:1038518

Kerekes, Ryan A ^[1]; Martins, Rodrigo ^[2]; Dyer, Michael A ^[1]; Gleason, Shaun Scott ^[1]; Karakaya, Mahmut ^[1]; Davis, Denise ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

In the developing mammalian retina, horizontal neurons undergo a dramatic reorganization oftheir processes shortly after they migrate to their appropriate laminar position. This is an importantprocess because it is now understood that the apical processes are important for establishing theregular mosaic of horizontal cells in the retina and proper reorganization during lamination isrequired for synaptogenesis with photoreceptors and bipolar neurons. However, this process isdifficult to study because the analysis of horizontal neuron anatomy is labor intensive and time-consuming. In this paper, we present a computational method for automatically tracing the three-dimensional (3-D) dendritic structure of horizontal retinal neurons in two-photon laser scanningmicroscope (TPLSM) imagery. Our method is based on 3-D skeletonization and is thus able topreserve the complex structure of the dendritic arbor of these cells. We demonstrate theeffectiveness of our approach by comparing our tracing results against two sets of semi-automatedtraces over a set of 10 horizontal neurons ranging in age from P1 to P5. We observe an averageagreement level of 81% between our automated trace and the manual traces. This automatedmethod will serve as an important starting point for further refinement and optimization.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Work for Others (WFO)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1038518
• Journal Information: NIH Public Access, Vol. 36, Issue 4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
ANATOMY
LASERS
MICROSCOPES
NERVE CELLS
OPTIMIZATION
RETINA
In the developing mammalian retina
horizontal neurons undergo a dramatic reorganization oftheir processes shortly after they migrate to their appropriate laminar position. This is an importantprocess because it is now understood that the apical processes