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.