Quantitative image analysis pipeline for detecting circulating hybrid cells in immunofluorescence images with human-level accuracy.

ABSTRACT: Circulating hybrid cells (CHCs) are a newly discovered, tumor-derived cell population found in the peripheral blood of cancer patients and are thought to contribute to tumor metastasis. However, identifying CHCs by immunofluorescence (IF) imaging of patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) is a time-consuming and subjective process that currently relies on manual annotation by laboratory technicians. Additionally, while IF is relatively easy to apply to tissue sections, its application to PBMC smears presents challenges due to the presence of biological and technical artifacts. To address these challenges, we present a robust image analysis pipeline to automate the detection and analysis of CHCs in IF images. The pipeline incorporates quality control to optimize specimen preparat

SUBMITTER: Heussner RT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11217923 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature