The large scale digital cell analysis system and its use in the quantitative analysis of cell populations

The Large Scale Digital Cell Analysis System (LSDCAS) was designed to analyze large numbers of cells under a variety of experimental conditions. LSDCAS is an automated microscope system capable of monitoring on the order of 1000 microscope fields over time intervals of up to one month. Although LSDCAS was originally designed to study stress-induced mitotic catastrophe, current efforts at the University of Iowa are applying the talents of researchers in the Engineering, Radiology, and Mathematics to provide imaging and data modeling/visualization technologies that will be useful in many areas of biological research. Several collaborative projects with University of Iowa researchers are underway involving the study of alterations in cell motility associated with metastasis; determination of the fate of cells which overproduce pro-oxidants, as well as the development of software to automatically determine the mode of cell death following exposure to cytotoxic agents. Ongoing extension of the capabilities of LSDCAS using image segmentation techniques based upon active appearance models will allow for the measurement of a variety of cellular endpoints. This report details our ongoing studies using LSDCAS; in particular its use in the quantitation of cell motility is described. Following these preliminary analyses, the report ends with a discussion of current development of LSDCAS to provide real-time fluorescence-based analysis of pro-oxidant production in cultured cells.