Algorithms and software for biological multiscale image analysis

Quantitative Analysis of Dynamic Association in Live Biological Fluorescent Samples

Determining vesicle localization and association in live microscopy may be challenging due to non-simultaneous imaging of rapidly moving objects with two excitation channels. Besides errors due to movement of objects, imaging may also introduce shifting between the image channels, and traditional colocalization methods cannot handle such situations. Our approach to quantifying the association between tagged proteins is to use an object-based method where the exact match of object locations is not assumed. Point-pattern matching provides a measure of correspondence between two point-sets under various changes between the sets. Thus, it can be used for robust quantitative analysis of vesicle …

Compensation of missing wedge effects with sequential statistical reconstruction in electron tomography.

Electron tomography (ET) of biological samples is used to study the organization and the structure of the whole cell and subcellular complexes in great detail. However, projections cannot be acquired over full tilt angle range with biological samples in electron microscopy. ET image reconstruction can be considered an ill-posed problem because of this missing information. This results in artifacts, seen as the loss of three-dimensional (3D) resolution in the reconstructed images. The goal of this study was to achieve isotropic resolution with a statistical reconstruction method, sequential maximum a posteriori expectation maximization (sMAP-EM), using no prior morphological knowledge about …

Permeability changes of integrin-containing multivesicular structures triggered by picornavirus entry.

Cellular uptake of clustered α2β1-integrin induces the formation of membrane compartments that subsequently mature into a multivesicular body (MVB). Enhanced internalization mediated by clustered integrins was observed upon infection by the picornavirus echovirus 1 (EVI). We elucidated the structural features of virus-induced MVBs (vMVBs) in comparison to antibody-induced control MVBs (mock infection) by means of high-pressure cryo fixation of cells followed by immuno electron tomography during early entry of the virus. Three-dimensional tomograms revealed a marked increase in the size and complexity of these vMVBs and the intraluminal vesicles (ILVs) at 2 and 3.5 hours post infection (p.i.…

BioImageXD: an open, general-purpose and high-throughput image-processing platform

BioImageXD puts open-source computer science tools for three-dimensional visualization and analysis into the hands of all researchers, through a user-friendly graphical interface tuned to the needs of biologists. BioImageXD has no restrictive licenses or undisclosed algorithms and enables publication of precise, reproducible and modifiable workflows. It allows simple construction of processing pipelines and should enable biologists to perform challenging analyses of complex processes. We demonstrate its performance in a study of integrin clustering in response to selected inhibitors.

N- and O-methylation of sphingomyelin markedly affects its membrane properties and interactions with cholesterol

We have prepared palmitoyl sphingomyelin (PSM) analogs in which either the 2-NH was methylated to NMe, the 3-OH was methylated to OMe, or both were methylated simultaneously. The aim of the study was to determine how such modifications in the membrane interfacial region of the molecules affected interlipid interactions in bilayer membranes. Measuring DPH anisotropy in vesicle membranes prepared from the SM analogs, we observed that methylation decreased gel-phase stability and increased fluid phase disorder, when compared to PSM. Methylation of the 2-NH had the largest effect on gel-phase instability (T(m), was lowered by similar to 7 degrees C). Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations sho…

Kongressinhallintajärjestelmän mallintaminen ja analysointi väritetyillä Petri-verkoilla

Echovirus 1 internalization negatively regulates epidermal growth factor receptor downregulation

We have demonstrated previously that the human picornavirus Echovirus 1 (EV1) triggers an infectious internalization pathway that follows closely, but seems to stay separate, from the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway triggered by epidermal growth factor (EGF). Here, we confirmed by using live and confocal microscopy that EGFR and EV1 vesicles are following intimately each other but are distinct entities with different degradation kinetics. We show here that despite being sorted to different pathways and located in distinct endosomes, EV1 inhibits EGFR downregulation. Simultaneous treatment with EV1 and EGF led to an accumulation of EGFR in cytoplasmic endosomes, which was evi…

Ellagitannin-rich cloudberry inhibits hepatocyte growth factorinduced cell migration and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT activation in colon carcinoma cells and tumors in Min mice

// Anne-Maria Pajari 1, 2 , Essi Paivarinta 1 , Lassi Paavolainen 3 , Elina Vaara 1 , Tuuli Koivumaki 4 , Ritu Garg 5 , Anu Heiman-Lindh 1 , Marja Mutanen 1 , Varpu Marjomaki 3 , Anne J. Ridley 2, 5 1 Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, Division of Nutrition, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 2 University College London, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, UK 3 Department of Biological and Environmental Science / Nanoscience Center, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland 4 Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, Division of Food Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 5 Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics, King’s College Lond…

Calpains promote α2β1 integrin turnover in nonrecycling integrin pathway

A novel virus- and integrin clustering–specific pathway diverts integrin from its normal endo/exocytic traffic to a nonrecycling degradative endosomal route. Clustering of α2β1 integrin causes redistribution of the integrin to perinuclear endosomes, leading to enhanced integrin turnover promoted by calpains.

Automatic detection and analysis of cell motility in phase-contrast time-lapse images using a combination of maximally stable extremal regions and Kalman filter approaches

Phase-contrast illumination is simple and most commonly used microscopic method to observe nonstained living cells. Automatic cell segmentation and motion analysis provide tools to analyze single cell motility in large cell populations. However, the challenge is to find a sophisticated method that is sufficiently accurate to generate reliable results, robust to function under the wide range of illumination conditions encountered in phase-contrast microscopy, and also computationally light for efficient analysis of large number of cells and image frames. To develop better automatic tools for analysis of low magnification phase-contrast images in time-lapse cell migration movies, we investiga…

Application independent greedy particle tracking method for 3D fluorescence microscopy image series

Single-particle tracking is computationally a challenging problem, and usually solved with local methods. Local methods suffer from defects in the image data or in the detection of particles, such as temporal disappearing of particles. A particle tracking method has to provide a solution also to real disappearing and appearing of particles as a result of merging and splitting. Here, we present an efficient, greedy algorithm as a solution to the particle tracking problem. This improved local method is application independent, as it has high configurability of the function used to solve particle correspondence. To demonstrate the accuracy of the method, we apply it to real microscopy image da…

Calpains promote α2β1 integrin turnover in non-recycling integrin pathway.

Collagen receptor integrins recycle between the plasma membrane and endosomes and facilitate formation and turnover of focal adhesions. In contrast, clustering of α2β1 integrin with antibodies or the human pathogen echovirus 1 (EV1) causes redistribution of α2 integrin to perinuclear multivesicular bodies, α2-MVBs. We show here that the internalized clustered α2 integrin remains in α2-MVBs and is not recycled back to the plasma membrane. Instead, receptor clustering and internalization lead to an accelerated down-regulation of α2β1 integrin compared to the slow turnover of unclustered α2 integrin. EV1 infection or integrin degradation is not associated with proteasomal or autophagosomal pro…

ADC measurements in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma: a DWI and cellularity study.

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) allows quantifying the random motion of water molecules in tissue by means of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements. The aim of the study was to determine whether ADC measurements allow discrimination of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) from follicular lymphoma (FL), and to examine the relationship between cellularity and ADC value of the tumor using DWI.Thirty-two patients with histologically proven non-Hodgkin lymphoma (21 with DLBCL and 11 with FL, 17 males and 15 females, mean age 62±13 years) underwent conventional MRI and DWI examination before treatment. The ADC values of DLBCL were compared to those of FL. The A…

Trimeric HIV Env provides epitope occlusion mediated by hypervariable loops

AbstractHypervariable loops of HIV-1 Env protein gp120 are speculated to play roles in the conformational transition of Env to the receptor binding-induced metastable state. Structural analysis of full-length Env-based immunogens, containing the entire V2 loop, displayed tighter association between gp120 subunits, resulting in a smaller trimeric diameter than constructs lacking V2. A prominent basal quaternary location of V2 and V3′ that challenges previous reports would facilitate gp41-independent gp120-gp120 interactions and suggests a quaternary mechanism of epitope occlusion facilitated by hypervariable loops. Deletion of V2 resulted in dramatic exposure of basal, membrane-proximal gp41…