Automatic segmentation and quantification of fluorescing microspheres adhering to capillary endothelial cells in the rat lung

摘要

Adhesion molecules present in the cellular membrane of the endothelium provide sites of leukocyte adherence as a first step in the process of leukocyte migration into the interstitium. New evidence suggests the same adhesion proteins may be responsible for the spread of metastatic tumors by providing a location for tumor cell attachment. A method was sought to quantitate the degree of adhesion molecule expression in the pulmonary capillary endothelium using a recently developed animal model which allows for viewing the lung surface in vivo. Videoimages of the pulmonary vascular system were gathered using this new lung chamber technique. A fully automated digital image processing and analysis (DIPA) system was also developed to estimate the level of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression on the capillary endothelial cells in these videoimages. Fluorescent microspheres were immunologically bound to the ICAM-1 molecules present on the endothelial cell surface. The DIPA system then located and quantified the fluorescent spots present in the videoimages. The ability of this system to locate and measure the fluorescence was compared with human measurements of the same images.