Coefficient of variation as an image-intensity metric for cytoskeleton bundling.

ABSTRACT: The evaluation of cytoskeletal bundling is a fundamental experimental method in the field of cell biology. Although the skewness of the pixel intensity distribution derived from fluorescently-labeled cytoskeletons has been widely used as a metric to evaluate the degree of bundling in digital microscopy images, its versatility has not been fully validated. Here, we applied the coefficient of variation (CV) of intensity values as an alternative metric, and compared its performance with skewness. In synthetic images representing extremely bundled conditions, the CV successfully detected degrees of bundling that could not be distinguished by skewness. On actual microscopy images, CV was better than skewness, especially on variable-angle epifluorescence microscopic images or stimulated emission

SUBMITTER: Higaki T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7752905 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature