RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 TASI: A software tool for spatial-temporal quantification of tumor spheroid dynamics
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 164921
DO 10.1101/164921
A1 Yue Hou
A1 Jessica Konen
A1 Daniel J Brat
A1 Adam I. Marcus
A1 Lee Cooper
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/17/164921.abstract
AB Spheroid cultures derived from explanted cancer specimens are an increasingly utilized resource for studying complex biological processes like tumor cell invasion and metastasis, representing an important bridge between the simplicity and practicality of 2D monolayer cultures and the complexity and realism of in vivo animal models. Temporal imaging of spheroids can capture the dynamics of cell behaviors and microenvironments, and when combined with quantitative image analysis methods, enables deep interrogation of biological mechanisms. This paper presents a comprehensive open-source software framework for Temporal Analysis of Spheroid Imaging (TASI) that allows investigators to objectively characterize spheroid growth and invasion dynamics. TASI performs spatiotemporal segmentation of spheroid cultures, extraction of features describing spheroid morpho-phenotypes, mathematical modeling of spheroid dynamics, and statistical comparisons of experimental conditions. We demonstrate the utility of this tool in an analysis of non-small cell lung cancer spheroids that exhibit variability in metastatic and proliferative behaviors.