2007年4月第44卷第2期四川大学学报(自然科学版)JournalofSichuanUniversity(NaturalScienceEdition)Apr.2007Vol.44No.2文章编号:049026756(2007)0220284205剪切力环境下的血管平滑肌细胞图像分割技术研究李晓宁1,樊瑜波2,3(1.四川师范大学计算机科学学院,成都610068;2.四川大学建筑与环境学院生物力学所,成都610064;3.北京航空航天大学生物工程系,北京100083)摘要:定量分析血管平滑肌细胞VSMCs(VascularSmoothMuscleCells)在剪切力作用下的形态变化有助于理解VSMCs的生长机制以及病理学研究.图像分割在图像分析中扮演着重要角色,但同时也是图像处理流程中最困难的步骤.针对培养在平板流室中的VSMCs相互交叠的细胞图像,作者首先分析了这类细胞图像的特征,随后提出了一种具有四个步骤的图像分割方法,分别是图像预处理、照明校正、数学形态学重建和分水岭转换.实验结果证明,按照这种方法分割细胞图像,取得了较好的效果.关键词:定量分析;分水岭转换;数学形态学;图像分割中图分类号:TP751文献标识码:ACellsegmentationofvascularsmoothmusclecellsundershearstressusingimageprocessingLIXiao2ning,FANYu2bo12,3(1.CollegeofComputerScience,SichuanNormalUniversity,Chengdu610068,China;2.BiomechanicalEngineeringLaboratory,SichuanUniversity,Chengdu610064,China;3.BioengineeringDepartment,BeihangUniversity,Beijing100083,China)Abstract:Quantitativelyanalysisofthemorphologicalresponsetoshearstressonvascularsmoothmusclecells(VSMCs)willfacilitateunderstandingthegrowthmechanismandpathologyofVSMCs.Imagesegmentationplaysakeyroleinimageanalysisandisalsothemostdifficultstepinimageprocessingpipeline.Inthispaper,firstly,thecharacteristicsoftheimagesofVSMCsculturedintheparallelplatechamberisanalyzedindetail,thenonesegmentationstrategywhichhasfourstepsbasedonwatershedoperatorsisproposed.Imageprepro2cessing,illuminationcorrecting,mathematicalmorphologicalreconstruction,watershedtransformationareimplementedaccordingtothesetsequence.Theresultshowsabetterseparationcellsfrombackgroundcanbeachievedbyusingthismethod.Attheendtheresultofimagesegmentationisanalyzedanddiscussed.Keywords:quantitativelyanalysis,watershed,mathematicalmorphology,imagesegmentation收稿日期:基金项目:作者简介:通讯作者:2006210229国家自然科学基金(10527001,10672105);北京R&D项目(H060920051030);四川师范大学基金李晓宁(1972-),男,博士,主要研究方向为医学图像处理.樊瑜波.E2mail:ybfan@yahoo.com.cn第2期李晓宁等:剪切力环境下的血管平滑肌细胞图像分割技术研究2851IntroductionCellularmechanicsisafocusofnowadaystissueengineeringstudy.Investigationsintotheeffectsofflowonvascularsmoothmusclecells(VSMCs)aremotivatedbythepossibleinfluenceofflowinvascu2larbiologyandpathobiology.Todeterminetheex2tentoffloweffects,studiesinwhichthefluidme2chanicconditionscanbesystematicallyvariedareneeded.Invivostudyisdifficulttoquantitativelydefinethedetailedcharacteristicsofthehemody2namicenvironment.Exertingmechanicalforcethroughvariouskindsofmechanicsdevicesonlivingcellsinvitroisthemainmethodofcellmechanicsnow.Mechanicalstimuli,suchasstrainandfluidshearstress,arebelievedtobekeyfactorsinregu2latingcardiovasculartissuegrowthandremodelingduringdevelopmentandindiseasestates.Shearstressesonvascularsmoothmusclecellsduetobloodfluidflowplayavitalroleinregulatingtheirmor2phology,structure,growthrateandfunctions.Thechangeinmorphologyisaninstinctiveresponsetobiomechanicalenvironmentandisanindicatorforthefunctionalchangesinthecells.Quantitativelyanalyzingcellmotilityandmorphodynamicproper2tiesfacilitatesunderstandingtherelationsbetweenmechanicalstimuliandmechanismso...