Development of an image analysis methodology for animal cell cultures characterization

Abstract

To establish a strong cell culture protocol and to evaluate experimental results, a quantitative determination of animal cells characteristics, such as confluence and morphology is quite often required. Quantitative image analysis using automated processing has become a routine methodology in a wide range of applications with the advantage of being non-invasive and non-destructive. However, in animal cells cultures automatic techniques giving valuable information based on visual inspection are still lacking. In the present work an image analysis procedure was developed to accurately detect animal cell cultures from images captured in phase-contrast microscopy. Image analysis results demonstrated that the methodology was successfully applied, leading to more efficient animal cell culturing with less variability.