CELL COUNTING METHOD, CELL COUNTING DEVICE, AND CELL COUNTING PROGRAM

• US 20160025612A1
• Filed: 07/24/2014
• Published: 01/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kuninori, Masahiro, Suenaga, Ryo, Ota, Kyohei
• Granted Patent: US 9,535,001 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 41/36 of biomass, e.g. colony counters or by turbidity measurements electrooptical investigation of individual particles G01N15/14, flow cytometers G01N15/1404
• CPC Class Codes: C12Q 1/06 Quantitative determination
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1433 using image recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/1006 for cytology
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2015/1486 Counting the particles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/23 Clustering techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10056 Microscopic image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30024 Cell structures in vitro; Tissue sections in vitro
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30242 Counting objects in image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/69 Microscopic objects, e.g. biological cells or cellular parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/695 Preprocessing, e.g. image segmentation

Abstract

To enable accurate counting the number of cultured cells without pulling apart cell clusters even if cells are aggregated densely to form three-dimensional cell clusters. An image of cultured cells is acquired, and from this image, an image of cell clusters and an image of individual cells are separated. Based on each of the image of cell clusters and the image of individual cells, the number of cells in the cell cluster and the number of individual cells are calculated.

Claims

1. A cell counting method for counting cultured cells, wherein

an image of the cultured cells is acquired;

an image of cell clusters and an image of individual cells are separated from this image; and

based on each of the image of cell clusters and the image of individual cells, the number of cells in the cell cluster and the number of individual cells are calculated.

2. The cell counting method according to claim 1, wherein circular approximation of individual cells is conducted based on the image of the individual cells, and the number of the individual cells and the average area of the individual cells are calculated.

3. The cell counting method according to claim 2, wherein

the volume of the cell cluster is calculated based on a projected area of the cell cluster;

the volume of the individual cells is calculated based on the average area of the individual cells; and

the volume of the cell cluster is divided by the volume of the individual cell, whereby the number of cells in the cluster cell is obtained.

4. The cell counting method according to claim 1, wherein

the volume of the individual cell is set in advance;

the volume of the cell cluster is calculated based on the projected area of the cell cluster; and

the volume of the cell cluster is divided by the volume of the individual cell that is set in advance, whereby the number of cells in the cell cluster is calculated.

5. The cell counting method according to claim 3, wherein the volume of the cell cluster is calculated by multiplying the volume of the cell cluster that is assumed to be a sphere by a correction coefficient.

6. A cell counting device for counting cultured cells, comprising:

means for acquiring an image of the cultured cells;

means for separating an image of cell clusters and an image of individual cells from this image; and

means for calculating the number of cells in the cell cluster and the number of the individual cells based on each of the image of cell clusters and the image of individual cells.

7. A cell counting program for counting cultured cells that allows a computer to execute:

inputting an image of the cultured cells;

separating an image of cell clusters and an image of individual cells from this image; and

calculating the number of cells in the cell cluster and the number of individual cells based on each of the image of cell clusters and the image of individual cells.