Optimal Live Cell Tracking for Cell Cycle Study Using Time-Lapse Fluorescent Microscopy Images

Fuhai Li, Xiaobo Zhou, Stephen T. C. Wong

Abstract: Cell cycle study using time-lapse fluorescent microscopy images is important for understanding the mechanisms of cell division and screening of anti-cancer drugs. Cell tracking is necessary for quantifying cell behaviors. However, the complex behaviors and similarity of individual cells in a dense population make the cell population tracking challenging. To deal with these challenges, we propose a novel tracking algorithm, in which the local neighboring information is introduced to distinguish the nearby cells with similar morphology, and the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) filter is employed to compensate for cell migrations. Based on a similarity metric, integrating the local neighboring information, migration prediction, shape and intensity, the integer programming is used to achieve the most stable association between cells in two consecutive frames. We evaluated the proposed method on the high content screening assays of HeLa cancer cell populations, and achieved 92% average tracking accuracy.