Contour-Based Algorithm for Tracking Cells and Cell-Material Analyses

Cellular tracking has been employed to investigate complex cell-cell and cell-material interactions that play critical roles in tissue development and disease progression. Tracking is often performed manually, however limitations associated with manual tracking make it impractical for tracking dense populations of cells. To address these limitations, several automated tracking algorithms have been developed, buy most of these algorithms are incapable of tracking cells after occlusion events or cell divisions. Here we have developed a custom algorithm in MATLAB that employs a contour-based segmentation approach to identify and track cell divisions and occlusion events. The algorithm further analyzes cell tracks during occlusion events using a cost analysis to detect and relabel mislabeled cells.