Open AccessAchieving cellular resolution for in vivo retinal images of transgenic GFAP-GFP mice via image processing
Author(s) -
Saravana Kumar,
G. C. Ho,
Kaitlin M. Woo,
Lang Zhuo
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.16.008250
Subject(s) - glial fibrillary acidic protein , green fluorescent protein , retinal , image processing , transgene , in vivo , preclinical imaging , retina , pixel , computer science , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , artificial intelligence , optics , physics , image (mathematics) , immunohistochemistry , immunology , genetics , gene , biochemistry
In vivo retinal images of transgenic mice, expressing GFP under the control of the GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) promoter, have very poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and cellular resolution such that the analysis of GFAP-GFP expressing retinal cells from these images can be a very challenging task. We report an image averaging method based on a pixel rank matching criterion which significantly enhances both these image attributes. We also show that it compares favorably against direct image averaging and a commercial averaging routine available from the Heidelberg Retinal Angiograph 2 software.