Development of Reconstruction System of Three-Dimensional Structure for Neurons Based on Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopic Images

Abstract

The system in which the three-dimensional morphological structure of a neuron is reconstructed from the sequence of two-dimensional images obtained by a confocal laser scanning microscope has been developed. To investigate the structure and the characteristic of a neuron, first, we extract a neuron shape from the sequence of two-dimensional images. Next, the three-dimensional morphological structure must be constituted by use of an extraction result. Since these operations have so far been executed manually, large-scale time and work have been wasted. In contrast, in proposed system, the branching structure and diameter of dendrites are extracted by the single-seed distance transformation method, and compartment neuron models are reconstructed by using the obtained results. In addition, the operation procedure is simplified by use of the graphical user interface. Therefore, the proposed system can support a user intuitively and effectively.