简介:Inordertounderstandthedevelopmentofstemcellsintospecializedmaturecellsitisnecessarytostudythegrowthofcellsinculture.Forthispurposeitisveryusefultohaveanefficientcomputerizedcelltrackingsystem.Inthispaperaprototypesystemfortrackingneuralstemcellsinasequenceofimagesisdescribed.Inordertogetreliabletrackingresultsitisimportanttohavegoodandrobustsegmentationofthecells.Toachievethiswehaveimplementedthreelevelsofsegmentation.Theprimarylevel,appliedtoallframes,isbasedonfuzzythresholdandwatershedsegmentationofafuzzygrayweighteddistancetransformedimage.Thesecondlevel,appliedtodifficultframeswherethefirstalgorithmseemstohavefailed,isbasedonafastgeometricactivecontourmodelbasedonthelevelsetalgorithm.Finally,theautomaticsegmentationresultonthecrucialfirstframecanbeinteractivelyinspectedandcorrected.Visualinspectionandcorrectioncanalsobeappliedtootherframesbutthisisgenerallynotneeded.Forthetrackingallcellsareclassifiedintoinactive,active,dividingandclusteredcells.Differentalgorithmsareusedtodealwiththedifferentcellcategories.Aspecialbacktrackingstepisusedtoautomaticallycorrectforsomecommonerrorsthatappearintheinitialforwardtrackingprocess.
简介:Inarecentstudy,researcherstookadultfemaleFischerratsandperformedaspinalcordtransectionontheminanattempttostudythegrowthoftransplantedearly-stageneurons.Whensuchearly-stageneuronsweretransplantedintoratssufferingfromparalysis,remarkableaxonalgrowthwasobserved.Theresultwasmanynewrelaycircuitsthatformed,whichsignificantlyimprovedfunction,
简介:Theresearchgroupwasinterestedinthetherapeuticpotentialoflimbalfibroblasts,whicharepre-sentinthecorneallimbus.Recently,inmuchstemcellresearch,researchersandadvocatesarestress-ingtheimportanceofutilizingcellsfromthenichewhichtheywilltarget.Thismeans,thatadiposetissueandbonemarrowderivedstemcells,arelikelynotappropriateandevendangeroustoapplyu-biquitouslyastherapiestootherpartsofthebodyincertaincases.Severalresearchgroupsandclini-caltrialshaveshownthistobethecase,includingcasesofblindness,braininflammation,anddeathasadverseevents.