Artificial-Intelligence-Based Imaging Analysis of Stem Cells: A Systematic Scoping Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Lately, investigations of artificial intelligence as an assisting tool for analyzing and identifying stem cells have increased. In this systematic scoping review, we aimed to identify and map the available artificial-intelligence-based techniques for imaging analysis, the characterization of stem cell differentiation, and trans-differentiation pathways. After an extensive search for the literature following a structured methodology, we included 27 studies in our systematic scoping review that we extracted the relevant data from. Based on the results of the included studies, artificial intelligence has the potential to serve as an assisting tool in stem cell imaging. However, it is still considered relatively new and under maturation. The goal of our review is to guide and help researchers while planning for future investigations. ABSTRACT: This systematic scoping review aims to map and identify the available artificial-intelligence-based techniques for imaging analysis, the characterization of stem cell differentiation, and trans-differentiation pathways. On the ninth of March 2022, data were collected from five electronic databases (PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus) and manual citation searching; all data were gathered in Zotero 5.0. A total of 4422 articles were collected after deduplication; only twenty-seven studies were included in this systematic scoping review after a two-phase screening against inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. The amount of research in this field is significantly increasing over the years. While the current state of artificial intelligence (AI) can tackle a multitude of medical problems, the consensus amongst researchers remains that AI still falls short in multiple ways that investigators should examine, ranging from the quality of images used in training sets and appropriate sample size, as well as the unexpected events that may occur which the algorithm cannot predict.