celldeath: A tool for detection of cell death in transmitted light microscopy images by deep learning-based visual recognition

Deep transfer learning approach for automated cell death classification reveals novel ferroptosis-inducing agents in subsets of B-ALL

Ferroptosis is a recently described type of regulated necrotic cell death whose induction has anti-cancer therapeutic potential, especially in hematological malignancies. However, efforts to uncover novel ferroptosis-inducing therapeutics have been largely unsuccessful. In the current investigation, we classified brightfield microscopy images of tumor cells undergoing defined modes of cell death using deep transfer learning (DTL). The trained DTL network was subsequently combined with high-throughput pharmacological screening approaches using automated live cell imaging to identify novel ferroptosis-inducing functions of the polo-like kinase inhibitor volasertib. Secondary validation showed that subsets of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) cell lines, namely 697, NALM6, HAL01, REH and primary patient B-ALL samples were sensitive to ferroptosis induction by volasertib. This was accompanied by an upregulation of ferroptosis-related genes post-volasertib treatment in cell lines and patient samples. Importantly, using several leukemia models, we determined that volasertib delayed tumor growth and induced ferroptosis in vivo. Taken together, we have applied DTL to automated live-cell imaging in pharmacological screening to identify novel ferroptosis-inducing functions of a clinically relevant anti-cancer therapeutic.

Deep learning-based image classification reveals heterogeneous execution of cell death fates during viral infection

Cell fate decisions, such as proliferation, differentiation, and death, are driven by complex molecular interactions and signaling cascades. While significant progress has been made in understanding the molecular determinants of these processes, historically, cell fate transitions were identified through light microscopy that focused on changes in cell morphology and function. Modern techniques have shifted toward probing molecular effectors to quantify these transitions, offering more precise quantification and mechanistic understanding. However, challenges remain in cases where the molecular signals are ambiguous, complicating the assignment of cell fate. During viral infection, programmed cell death (PCD) pathways, including apoptosis, necroptosis, and pyroptosis, exhibit complex signaling and molecular cross-talk. This can lead to simultaneous activation of multiple PCD pathways, which confounds assignment of cell fate based on molecular information alone. To address this challenge, we employed deep learning-based image classification of dying cells to analyze PCD in single herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1)-infected cells. Our approach reveals that despite heterogeneous activation of signaling, individual cells adopt predominantly prototypical death morphologies. Nevertheless, PCD is executed heterogeneously within a uniform population of virus-infected cells and varies over time. These findings demonstrate that image-based phenotyping can provide valuable insights into cell fate decisions, complementing molecular assays.

Semi-automated, high-content imaging of drug transporter knockout sea urchin (Lytechinus pictus) embryos

A defining feature of sea urchins is their extreme fecundity. Urchins produce millions of transparent, synchronously developing embryos, ideal for spatial and temporal analysis of development. This biological feature has been effectively utilized for ensemble measurement of biochemical changes. However, it has been underutilized in imaging studies, where single embryo measurements are used. Here we present an example of how stable genetics and high content imaging, along with machine learning-based image analysis, can be used to exploit the fecundity and synchrony of sea urchins in imaging-based drug screens. Building upon our recently created sea urchin ABCB1 knockout line, we developed a high-throughput assay to probe the role of this drug transporter in embryos. We used high content imaging to compare accumulation and toxicity of canonical substrates and inhibitors of the transporter, including fluorescent molecules and antimitotic cancer drugs, in homozygous knockout and wildtype embryos. To measure responses from the resulting image data, we used a nested convolutional neural network, which rapidly classified embryos according to fluorescence or cell division. This approach identified sea urchin embryos with 99.8% accuracy and determined two-cell and aberrant embryos with 96.3% and 89.1% accuracy, respectively. The results revealed that ABCB1 knockout embryos accumulated the transporter substrate calcein 3.09 times faster than wildtypes. Similarly, knockouts were 4.71 and 3.07 times more sensitive to the mitotic poisons vinblastine and taxol. This study paves the way for large scale pharmacological screens in the sea urchin embryo.

Transformer-based spatial-temporal detection of apoptotic cell death in live-cell imaging

Intravital microscopy has revolutionized live-cell imaging by allowing the study of spatial-temporal cell dynamics in living animals. However, the complexity of the data generated by this technology has limited the development of effective computational tools to identify and quantify cell processes. Amongst them, apoptosis is a crucial form of regulated cell death involved in tissue homeostasis and host defense. Live-cell imaging enabled the study of apoptosis at the cellular level, enhancing our understanding of its spatial-temporal regulation. However, at present, no computational method can deliver robust detection of apoptosis in microscopy timelapses. To overcome this limitation, we developed ADeS, a deep learning-based apoptosis detection system that employs the principle of activity recognition. We trained ADeS on extensive datasets containing more than 10,000 apoptotic instances collected both in vitro and in vivo, achieving a classification accuracy above 98% and outperforming state-of-the-art solutions. ADeS is the first method capable of detecting the location and duration of multiple apoptotic events in full microscopy timelapses, surpassing human performance in the same task. We demonstrated the effectiveness and robustness of ADeS across various imaging modalities, cell types, and staining techniques. Finally, we employed ADeS to quantify cell survival in vitro and tissue damage in mice, demonstrating its potential application in toxicity assays, treatment evaluation, and inflammatory dynamics. Our findings suggest that ADeS is a valuable tool for the accurate detection and quantification of apoptosis in live-cell imaging and, in particular, intravital microscopy data, providing insights into the complex spatial-temporal regulation of this process.

Toward a predictive understanding of epithelial cell death

Epithelial cell death is highly prevalent during development and tissue homeostasis. While we have a rather good understanding of the molecular regulators of programmed cell death, especially for apoptosis, we still fail to predict when, where, how many and which specific cells will die in a tissue. This likely relies on the much more complex picture of apoptosis regulation in a tissular and epithelial context, which entails cell autonomous but also non-cell autonomous factors, diverse feedback and multiple layers of regulation of the commitment to apoptosis. In this review, we illustrate this complexity of epithelial apoptosis regulation by describing these different layers of control, all demonstrating that local cell death probability is a complex emerging feature. We first focus on non-cell autonomous factors that can locally modulate the rate of cell death, including cell competition, mechanical input and geometry as well as systemic effects. We then describe the multiple feedback mechanisms generated by cell death itself. We also outline the multiple layers of regulation of epithelial cell death, including the coordination of extrusion and regulation occurring downstream of effector caspases. Eventually, we propose a roadmap to reach a more predictive understanding of cell death regulation in an epithelial context.

Automated detection of apoptotic bodies and cells in label-free time-lapse high-throughput video microscopy using deep convolutional neural networks

MOTIVATION

Reliable label-free methods are needed for detecting and profiling apoptotic events in time-lapse cell-cell interaction assays. Prior studies relied on fluorescent markers of apoptosis, e.g. Annexin-V, that provide an inconsistent and late indication of apoptotic onset for human melanoma cells. Our motivation is to improve the detection of apoptosis by directly detecting apoptotic bodies in a label-free manner.

RESULTS

Our trained ResNet50 network identified nanowells containing apoptotic bodies with 92% accuracy and predicted the onset of apoptosis with an error of one frame (5 min/frame). Our apoptotic body segmentation yielded an IoU accuracy of 75%, allowing associative identification of apoptotic cells. Our method detected apoptosis events, 70% of which were not detected by Annexin-V staining.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION

Open-source code and sample data provided at https://github.com/kwu14victor/ApoBDproject.

DeXtrusion: automatic recognition of epithelial cell extrusion through machine learning in vivo

Accurately counting and localising cellular events from movies is an important bottleneck of high-content tissue/embryo live imaging. Here, we propose a new methodology based on deep learning that allows automatic detection of cellular events and their precise xyt localisation on live fluorescent imaging movies without segmentation. We focused on the detection of cell extrusion, the expulsion of dying cells from the epithelial layer, and devised DeXtrusion: a pipeline based on recurrent neural networks for automatic detection of cell extrusion/cell death events in large movies of epithelia marked with cell contour. The pipeline, initially trained on movies of the Drosophila pupal notum marked with fluorescent E-cadherin, is easily trainable, provides fast and accurate extrusion predictions in a large range of imaging conditions, and can also detect other cellular events, such as cell division or cell differentiation. It also performs well on other epithelial tissues with reasonable re-training. Our methodology could easily be applied for other cellular events detected by live fluorescent microscopy and could help to democratise the use of deep learning for automatic event detections in developing tissues.

Machine learning-based detection of label-free cancer stem-like cell fate

The detection of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) is mainly based on molecular markers or functional tests giving a posteriori results. Therefore label-free and real-time detection of single CSCs remains a difficult challenge. The recent development of microfluidics has made it possible to perform high-throughput single cell imaging under controlled conditions and geometries. Such a throughput requires adapted image analysis pipelines while providing the necessary amount of data for the development of machine-learning algorithms. In this paper, we provide a data-driven study to assess the complexity of brightfield time-lapses to monitor the fate of isolated cancer stem-like cells in non-adherent conditions. We combined for the first time individual cell fate and cell state temporality analysis in a unique algorithm. We show that with our experimental system and on two different primary cell lines our optimized deep learning based algorithm outperforms classical computer vision and shallow learning-based algorithms in terms of accuracy while being faster than cutting-edge convolutional neural network (CNNs). With this study, we show that tailoring our deep learning-based algorithm to the image analysis problem yields better results than pre-trained models. As a result, such a rapid and accurate CNN is compatible with the rise of high-throughput data generation and opens the door to on-the-fly CSC fate analysis.

LANCE: a Label-Free Live Apoptotic and Necrotic Cell Explorer Using Convolutional Neural Network Image Analysis

Identifying and quantifying cell death is the basis for all cell death research. Current methods for obtaining these quantitative measurements rely on established biomarkers, yet the marker-based approach suffers from limited marker specificity, high cost of reagents, lengthy sample preparation, and fluorescence imaging. Based on the morphological difference, we developed a Live, Apoptotic, and Necrotic Cell Explorer (LANCE) to categorize cell death status in a label-free manner, by incorporating machine learning and image processing. The LANCE workflow includes cropping individual cells from microscopic images having hundreds of cells, formation of an image database of around 5000 events, training and validation of the convolutional neural network models using multiple cell lines, and treatment conditions. With LANCE, we precisely categorized live, apoptotic, and necrotic cells with a high accuracy of 96.3 ± 0.5%. More importantly, the nondestructive label-free LANCE method allows for tracking time dynamics of the cell death process, which enhances the understanding of subtle cell death regulation at the molecular level. Hence, LANCE is a fast, low-cost, and nondestructive label-free method to distinguish cell status, which can be applied to cell death studies as well as many other biomedical applications.

GEMA-An Automatic Segmentation Method for Real-Time Analysis of Mammalian Cell Growth in Microfluidic Devices

Nowadays, image analysis has a relevant role in most scientific and research areas. This process is used to extract and understand information from images to obtain a model, knowledge, and rules in the decision process. In the case of biological areas, images are acquired to describe the behavior of a biological agent in time such as cells using a mathematical and computational approach to generate a system with automatic control. In this paper, MCF7 cells are used to model their growth and death when they have been injected with a drug. These mammalian cells allow understanding of behavior, gene expression, and drug resistance to breast cancer. For this, an automatic segmentation method called GEMA is presented to analyze the apoptosis and confluence stages of culture by measuring the increase or decrease of the image area occupied by cells in microfluidic devices. In vitro, the biological experiments can be analyzed through a sequence of images taken at specific intervals of time. To automate the image segmentation, the proposed algorithm is based on a Gabor filter, a coefficient of variation (CV), and linear regression. This allows the processing of images in real time during the evolution of biological experiments. Moreover, GEMA has been compared with another three representative methods such as gold standard (manual segmentation), morphological gradient, and a semi-automatic algorithm using FIJI. The experiments show promising results, due to the proposed algorithm achieving an accuracy above 90% and a lower computation time because it requires on average 1 s to process each image. This makes it suitable for image-based real-time automatization of biological lab-on-a-chip experiments.