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Counting microglial cells in the adult rodent retina
Author(s) -
Gallego B.I.,
De Garcia P.,
Sebastian A.I.,
De Hoz R.,
Salazar J.J.,
Rojas B.,
Trivino A.,
Ramirez J.M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2016.0094
Subject(s) - retina , microglia , neuroscience , glaucoma , retinal , pathology , computer science , biology , medicine , ophthalmology , immunology , inflammation
Summary Glaucoma is a chronic optic neuropathy linked to the damage and death of retinal ganglion cells. Microglial cells seem to play a critical role on glaucomatous physiopathology, and their proliferation has been considered a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases ongoing, also in the retina. Quantitative microglial studies require big sets of images analysed. Because manual cell counting methods are tedious and time consuming, computational approaches have been developed for counting cells in the nervous system. Nonetheless, microglial complex morphology makes difficult proper cell identification with standard methods. We present a new and interactive algorithm implemented in MATLAB for quantitative analysis of Iba‐1+ microglial cells in adult mice retinas. Without any computation knowledge, this technique enabled a fast quantification of microglial cells with reliability similar to manual method, in both non‐proliferative and in a proliferative state in a mouse model of unilateral laser‐inducer ocular hypertension. Although this algorithm has been developed for retinal microglial analysis in a specific model, some parameters can be modified in the interactive interface for its application in other retinal pathologies or either tissues.