Analyzing and Understanding of Cell-ECM Interactions

Abstract

Cell movement is one of the most essential processes that takes place in every living organism. Cell movement is a complex process and has a significant role in various pathological and physiological processes. Examples include the following processes of immune responses, embryonic development, wound healing, outgrowth and metastasis of cancer cells, etc. Thus, it is relevant to observe cell behavioral properties in order to obtain the detailed information of movement patterns for further usage in different scientific fields. An understanding of patterns by which cells move can result in the development of newest medical strategies for regulating, for instance, cancer cells. The focus of this work is to give an interpretation of a model that can represent movement and interaction of two or more cells in a three-dimensional environment and provide a three-dimensional cell tracking analysis method by applying current algorithms to movement of these objects. At First, in this study, we construct a model that can observe their interactions from all directions. Secondly, since it is difficult to accurately observe the depth of an object with a two-dimensional image, by using multiple imaging devices, three-dimensional image calibration is applied from the two-dimensional image. After that, the 3D object tracking algorithm is used to determine exactly where the objects are located and connecting 3D bounding boxs. Finally, the statistical analysis is applied to the obtained data in order to verify whether the data follows normal distribution.