Automated Tracing of Horizontal Neuron Processes During Retinal Development

Overview

Journal Neurochem Res

Specialties Chemistry
Neurology

Date 2011 Jan 12

PMID 21221777

Citations 2

Authors

Ryan A Kerekes

Rodrigo A P Martins

Denise Davis

Mahmut Karakaya

Shaun Gleason

Michael A Dyer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In the developing mammalian retina, horizontal neurons undergo a dramatic reorganization of their processes shortly after they migrate to their appropriate laminar position. This is an important process because it is now understood that the apical processes are important for establishing the regular mosaic of horizontal cells in the retina and proper reorganization during lamination is required for synaptogenesis with photoreceptors and bipolar neurons. However, this process is difficult 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 scanning microscope (TPLSM) imagery. Our method is based on 3-D skeletonization and is thus able to preserve the complex structure of the dendritic arbor of these cells. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by comparing our tracing results against two sets of semi-automated traces over a set of 10 horizontal neurons ranging in age from P1 to P5. We observe an average agreement level of 81% between our automated trace and the manual traces. This automated method will serve as an important starting point for further refinement and optimization.

Citing Articles

Quantification of surviving neurons after contusion, dislocation, and distraction spinal cord injuries using automated methods.

Wang J, Zhang M, Guo Y, Hu H, Chen K J Exp Neurosci. 2019; 13:1179069519869617.

PMID: 31456647 PMC: 6702772. DOI: 10.1177/1179069519869617.

Retinoblastoma (Rb) regulates laminar dendritic arbor reorganization in retinal horizontal neurons.

Martins R, Davis D, Kerekes R, Zhang J, Bayazitov I, Hiler D Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011; 108(52):21111-6.

PMID: 22160703 PMC: 3248513. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1108141108.

References

Johnson D, Donovan S, Dyer M . Mosaic deletion of Rb arrests rod differentiation and stimulates ectopic synaptogenesis in the mouse retina. J Comp Neurol. 2006; 498(1):112-28. DOI: 10.1002/cne.21059. View

Losavio B, Liang Y, Santamaria-Pang A, Kakadiaris I, Colbert C, Saggau P . Live neuron morphology automatically reconstructed from multiphoton and confocal imaging data. J Neurophysiol. 2008; 100(4):2422-9. DOI: 10.1152/jn.90627.2008. View

Chan T, Vese L . Active contours without edges. IEEE Trans Image Process. 2008; 10(2):266-77. DOI: 10.1109/83.902291. View

Jones B, Watt C, Frederick J, Baehr W, Chen C, Levine E . Retinal remodeling triggered by photoreceptor degenerations. J Comp Neurol. 2003; 464(1):1-16. DOI: 10.1002/cne.10703. View

Al-Kofahi O, Radke R, Roysam B, Banker G . Automated semantic analysis of changes in image sequences of neurons in culture. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2006; 53(6):1109-23. DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2006.873565. View

Huckfeldt R, Schubert T, Morgan J, Godinho L, Di Cristo G, Huang Z . Transient neurites of retinal horizontal cells exhibit columnar tiling via homotypic interactions. Nat Neurosci. 2008; 12(1):35-43. PMC: 2743396. DOI: 10.1038/nn.2236. View

Cepko C, Austin C, Yang X, Alexiades M, Ezzeddine D . Cell fate determination in the vertebrate retina. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996; 93(2):589-95. PMC: 40096. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.93.2.589. View

Donovan S, Dyer M . Developmental defects in Rb-deficient retinae. Vision Res. 2004; 44(28):3323-33. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.08.007. View

Marc R, Jones B . Retinal remodeling in inherited photoreceptor degenerations. Mol Neurobiol. 2003; 28(2):139-47. DOI: 10.1385/MN:28:2:139. View

10.

Marc R, Jones B, Watt C, Strettoi E . Neural remodeling in retinal degeneration. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2003; 22(5):607-55. DOI: 10.1016/s1350-9462(03)00039-9. View

11.

Belliveau M, Cepko C . Extrinsic and intrinsic factors control the genesis of amacrine and cone cells in the rat retina. Development. 1999; 126(3):555-66. DOI: 10.1242/dev.126.3.555. View

12.

Livesey F, Cepko C . Vertebrate neural cell-fate determination: lessons from the retina. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001; 2(2):109-18. DOI: 10.1038/35053522. View

13.

Donovan S, Dyer M . Regulation of proliferation during central nervous system development. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2005; 16(3):407-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2005.02.012. View

14.

Chen Z, Molloi S . Automatic 3D vascular tree construction in CT angiography. Comput Med Imaging Graph. 2003; 27(6):469-79. DOI: 10.1016/s0895-6111(03)00039-9. View

15.

Dyer M . Regulation of proliferation, cell fate specification and differentiation by the homeodomain proteins Prox1, Six3, and Chx10 in the developing retina. Cell Cycle. 2003; 2(4):350-7. View

16.

Xiong G, Zhou X, Degterev A, Ji L, Wong S . Automated neurite labeling and analysis in fluorescence microscopy images. Cytometry A. 2006; 69(6):494-505. DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.20296. View

17.

Dyer M, Cepko C . Control of Müller glial cell proliferation and activation following retinal injury. Nat Neurosci. 2000; 3(9):873-80. DOI: 10.1038/78774. View

18.

Dyer M, Cepko C . Regulating proliferation during retinal development. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001; 2(5):333-42. DOI: 10.1038/35072555. View