METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SYSTEMATIC SINGLE CELL TRACKING OF DISTINCTIVE CELLULAR EVENTS

摘要

A method and apparatus for quantitative identification of distinctive cellular events occurring in a cell population using a non-fluorescence approach. The apparatus and method comprises an image acquisition unit having a Differential Interference Contrast microscope with a camera, a light source, an environmental chamber allowing carrying out cell culture of at least one cell in a cell population; the image acquisition unit acquiring images of the cell population, at predetermined time points; a cell tracker for individually tracking the at least one cell of the cell population in the images; a distinctive cellular event detector for detecting an occurrence of a distinctive cellular event; a report generator; wherein the distinctive cellular event is selected from the group consisting of: tripolar, tetrapolar, quadpolar cell division, cell fusion, cell death, impaired cell division, cell shape alteration, nuclear shape alteration, inner cellular material accumulation, cell enlargement, engulfing, hyper-mobilization, hypo-mobilization and prolonged doubling time.

主权项

1. A method for quantitative identification of distinctive cellular events occurring in a cell population using a non-fluorescence approach, the method comprising:
providing an image acquisition unit having a Differential Interference Contrast microscope system with a camera, a light source, an environmental chamber allowing carrying out cell culture of at least one cell in a cell population, for a period of time sufficient to allow division of a progenitor to form at least one progeny; controlling the image acquisition unit to acquire images of said cell population in the chamber, at predetermined time points; individually tracking said at least one cell of said cell population in said images acquired by said image acquisition unit; detecting an occurrence of a distinctive cellular event for at least one of said cell individually tracked by said cell tracker; and generating a report having an identification of detected distinctive cellular events, wherein said distinctive cellular event is selected from the group consisting of: dipolar cell division (DD), tripolar cell division (TD), tetrapolar cell division (QD), quadpolar cell division (HD), cell fusion (CF), cell death (CD), impaired cell division (IP), cell shape alteration, nuclear shape alteration, inner cellular material accumulation, cell enlargement, engulfing, hyper-mobilization, hypo-mobilization and prolonged doubling time, and combinations thereof.