It is constituted by a network of billions of neurons that range from 5 to 30 μm in diameter ( Andersen et al., 2016). The brain is the main part of the central nervous system and controls most body functions.
![colocalization stereology colocalization stereology](https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/40/43/8306/F10.large.jpg)
Further works will aim to evaluate the impact of staining and interindividual variability on our protocol. Neuron diameters obtained with our method ranged between 2 and 28.6 μm, matching values reported in the literature. Neuron counts obtained with our method show high correlation with an adapted stereology technique performed by two experts (respectively, 0.983 and 0.975 for the two experts). Qualitative and quantitative analyses demonstrate that the proposed method provides satisfactory results in most regions (e.g., caudate, cortex, subiculum, and putamen) and outperforms a baseline Watershed algorithm. This protocol was evaluated in 17 major anatomical regions from three NeuN-stained macaque brain sections presenting diverse and comprehensive neuron densities. (2) Taking into account size-varying neurons, an adaptive multiscale procedure aiming at individualizing touching neurons is proposed. (1) After a step of segmentation of neuron class using a Random Forest classifier, a novel min-max filter is used to enhance neurons’ centroids and boundaries, enabling the use of region growing process based on a contour-based model to drive it to neuron boundary and achieve individualization of touching neurons.
Colocalization stereology series#
Our approach is based on a series of processing steps that incorporate increasingly more information.
![colocalization stereology colocalization stereology](https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4380666/bin/nihms672650f3.jpg)
In this article, we address the problem of individualization of size-varying and touching neurons in optical microscopy two-dimensional (2-D) images. However, images acquired at such high spatial resolution are massive, contain complex information, and are therefore difficult to analyze automatically. Virtual microscopy offers the unique possibility to study the compositions of tissues at a cellular scale. In biomedical research, cell analysis is important to assess physiological and pathophysiological information.
![colocalization stereology colocalization stereology](https://els-jbs-prod-cdn.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/cms/attachment/d6ddfaf3-6245-4784-9552-716e15da2019/gr3_lrg.jpg)
Zhenzhen You 1,2, Yaël Balbastre 1, Clément Bouvier 1, Anne-Sophie Hérard 1, Pauline Gipchtein 1, Philippe Hantraye 1, Caroline Jan 1, Nicolas Souedet 1 and Thierry Delzescaux 1*