High content image sequence analysis for quantifying calcium signals inside cells with mutant presenilin-1 of familial alzheimer disease

Mutation of presenilin-1 (PS-1) gene is known to be closely related to the familial Alzheimer disease (FAD), whereas oxidative stress and de-regulation of calcium homeostasis are two important phases. To better understand the biological mechanisms between the two important phases, we present a computerized system of automated high content, time-lapse cellular image sequence analysis to quantify calcium signals inside the single cells with PS-1. The proposed system consists of three major components: cell segmentation, image displacement correction, and calcium signal extraction, denoising, and oscillation detection; some new algorithms are implemented. The validation indicates that the proposed system is effective and reliable. Two patterns of calcium signals: stable and temporal (oscillation) are found in this study. The experimental results confirm the hypothesis that H₂O₂ has regulatory effect on the calcium signal mediated by PS-1.