MorphoCellSorter is an Andrews plot-based sorting approach to rank microglia according to their morphological...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Immunology
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, display diverse morphologies linked to their functional states.
• Current morphological analysis methods often rely on distinct classifications that may not reflect the continuous nature of microglial morphology.
• A standardized and biologically relevant method for assessing microglial morphology is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce MorphoCellSorter, an open-source tool for automated microglial morphology assessment.
• To provide a more biologically relevant and quantitative approach to analyzing microglial morphological diversity.
• To enable better discrimination of microglial populations in different physiological and pathological contexts.

Main Methods:

• Development of MorphoCellSorter, an open-source software tool.
• Utilizing principal component analysis and Andrews plots for automated cell scoring based on morphological criteria.
• Application of the tool to diverse microglial datasets from mice and rats (in vivo, in vitro, ex vivo) using various imaging techniques.

Main Results:

• MorphoCellSorter successfully ranked microglial cells across different datasets, ages, and experimental models.
• The tool demonstrated the ability to discriminate between cell populations under various pathophysiological conditions.
• Validated the tool's performance across multiple species and imaging modalities.

Conclusions:

• MorphoCellSorter offers a versatile, user-friendly, and ready-to-use method for evaluating microglial morphological diversity.
• This approach can standardize microglial morphological analysis across laboratories.
• Facilitates a deeper understanding of microglial roles in health and disease through quantitative morphological assessment.