Re: Trouble quantifying neurite outgrowth from explant

Posted by Marcus_pocus on Nov 08, 2013; 2:08pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Trouble-quantifying-neurite-outgrowth-from-explant-tp5005499p5005503.html

Thanks for your answer!

The problem is that the images aren't clear enough to totally exclude the background and specks and include all the neurites, so use of NeuronJ or the skeletonize function aren't possible (unless I'm mistaken). I'm currently doing immunofluorescence stainings in order the obtain better images.

As for these brightfield pictures, I was initially thinking of something along the line of this:

Selecting 2 ROIS corresponding to the explant and the halo of neurites and measuring the overall area that is covered by the neurites, the optical density of the "neurite zone" and the average distance between the two ROIs. All these being quite indirect measures of neurite outgrowth but still better than nothing.

I imagine that measuring the area and the OD must be quite straightforward however I don't have a clue as to how I could measure the "average neurite lenght". Any tips?

Thanks once more to any benevolent helpers!

Cheers,

Marc