Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Skeletal muscle has the capacity to adapt to environmental changes and regenerate upon injury. To study these processes, most experimental methods use quantification of parameters obtained from images of immunostained skeletal muscle. Muscle cross-sectional area, fiber typing, localization of nuclei within the muscle fiber, the number of vessels, and fiber-associated stem cells are used to assess muscle physiology. Manual quantification of these parameters is time consuming and only poorly reproducible. While current state-of-the-art software tools are unable to analyze all these parameters simultaneously, we have developed MuscleJ, a new bioinformatics tool to do so.Methods
Running on the popular open source Fiji software platform, MuscleJ simultaneously analyzes parameters from immunofluorescent staining, imaged by different acquisition systems in a completely automated manner.Results
After segmentation of muscle fibers, up to three other channels can be analyzed simultaneously. Dialog boxes make MuscleJ easy-to-use for biologists. In addition, we have implemented color in situ cartographies of results, allowing the user to directly visualize results on reconstituted muscle sections.Conclusion
We report here that MuscleJ results were comparable to manual observations made by five experts. MuscleJ markedly enhances statistical analysis by allowing reliable comparison of skeletal muscle physiology-pathology results obtained from different laboratories using different acquisition systems. Providing fast robust multi-parameter analyses of skeletal muscle physiology-pathology, MuscleJ is available as a free tool for the skeletal muscle community.
SUBMITTER: Mayeuf-Louchart A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6091189 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Mayeuf-Louchart Alicia A Hardy David D Thorel Quentin Q Roux Pascal P Gueniot Lorna L Briand David D Mazeraud Aurélien A Bouglé Adrien A Shorte Spencer L SL Staels Bart B Chrétien Fabrice F Duez Hélène H Danckaert Anne A
Skeletal muscle 20180806 1
<h4>Background</h4>Skeletal muscle has the capacity to adapt to environmental changes and regenerate upon injury. To study these processes, most experimental methods use quantification of parameters obtained from images of immunostained skeletal muscle. Muscle cross-sectional area, fiber typing, localization of nuclei within the muscle fiber, the number of vessels, and fiber-associated stem cells are used to assess muscle physiology. Manual quantification of these parameters is time consuming an ...[more]