Quantitative image analysis in mammary gland biology

In this paper we present a summary of recent quantitative approaches used for the analysis of macro and microscopic images in mammary gland biology. The advantages and disadvantages of whole mount analysis, reconstruction of serial tissue sections and nucleus/cell segmentation of either conventional and confocal images are discussed, as are applications of quantitative image analysis, such as quantification of protein levels or vasculature measurements in normal tissue and cancer. Integration of quantitative imaging into the further study of the mammary gland holds the promise of better understanding its tissue complexity that evolves during development, differentiation and disease.