Segmentation and Quantitative Analysis of Epithelial Tissues

Abstract

Epithelia are tissues that regulate exchanges with the environment. They are very dynamic and can acquire virtually any shape; at the cellular level, they are composed of cells tightly connected by junctions. Most often epithelia are amenable to live imaging; however, the large number of cells composing an epithelium and the absence of informatics tools dedicated to epithelial analysis largely prevented tissue scale studies. Here we present Tissue Analyzer, a free tool that can be used to segment and analyze epithelial cells and monitor tissue dynamics.

Keywords: Cell tracking; Cells; Epithelia; Junctional remodeling; Junctions; Live imaging; Quantitative biology; Segmentation; Tissue Analyzer.