An automatic method for the evaluation of xenobiotic toxicity on haematopoietic progenitors

Culture of haematopoietic progenitors is used in toxicology to evaluate the effects of xenobiotic contaminants on humans. One of the most important parts of this analysis is the quantification of cell aggregates in the culture. These aggregates can have different sizes and shapes, which reflect the category of cells (granulocyte or monocyte), and the growth percentage reflects the toxic effect of the contaminant. A proposal for an automatic method based on image analysis is described in this work. Algorithms able to solve the basic problems are proposed and tested, and the problem concerning a tridimensional analysis is exposed and discussed.