Cell dynamic morphology classification using deep convolutional neural networks.

Journal: Cytometry. Part A : the journal of the International Society for Analytical Cytology
PMID:

Abstract

Cell morphology is often used as a proxy measurement of cell status to understand cell physiology. Hence, interpretation of cell dynamic morphology is a meaningful task in biomedical research. Inspired by the recent success of deep learning, we here explore the application of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to cell dynamic morphology classification. An innovative strategy for the implementation of CNNs is introduced in this study. Mouse lymphocytes were collected to observe the dynamic morphology, and two datasets were thus set up to investigate the performances of CNNs. Considering the installation of deep learning, the classification problem was simplified from video data to image data, and was then solved by CNNs in a self-taught manner with the generated image data. CNNs were separately performed in three installation scenarios and compared with existing methods. Experimental results demonstrated the potential of CNNs in cell dynamic morphology classification, and validated the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. CNNs were successfully applied to the classification problem, and outperformed the existing methods in the classification accuracy. For the installation of CNNs, transfer learning was proved to be a promising scheme. © 2018 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.

Authors

  • Heng Li
    Department of Anesthesiology, Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, University of South China, Hengyang 421002, Hunan Province, China.
  • Fengqian Pang
    Department of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing, China .
  • Yonggang Shi
    Department of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing, China .
  • Zhiwen Liu
    Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Protein Function and Regulation in Agricultural Organisms, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.