Quantification of Immune Infiltration by Digital Image Analysis

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Matias Ramirez

Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Clinical and Experimental research, Laboratory of Experimental Surgery and Transplantation

Matias Ramirez obtained his Medical degree in Argentina, at the Italian University Institute of Rosario (IUNIR). He is currently a teaching assistant and a PhD candidate at UCLouvain. His field of research is xenotransplantation, where heuses imaging techniques to evaluate how to improve biocompatibility in the transplantation of islets of Langerhans.

Caroline Bouzin

Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Clinical and Experimental research, IREC Imaging Platform

Caroline Bouzin is currently Chief Research Logistic collaborator of the IREC imaging platform (2IP) at the Université catholique de Louvain (Institute of clinical and experimental research). He obtained his PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the UCLouvain in 2002 on hematopoiesis transcriptional regulation. Then, he worked for 8 years as a postdoctoral fellow on tumor microenvironment in the Pharmacology and Therapeutics department (UCLouvain). In 2011, he started the 2IP platform which currently provides researchers and clinicians a support for sample preparation, image acquisition and image analysis.

Bastien Estelle

UCLouvain, 57 Avenue Hippocrate B1.57.04, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (FATH)

After a PhD in photobiology at the Research Center for Automatic Control (CRAN - UMR 7039 CNRS, Nancy, France),Bastien Estelle joined the group of Pr. Olivier Feron at UCLouvain, as post-doctoral Fellow. His research focuses on the development and evaluation of three-dimensional cell culture models using innovative imaging techniques, to study the link between microenvironment (acidosis and hypoxia) and tumor progression.

Nicolas Huyghe

UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium, Institut de Recherche Clinique et Experimentale (Pôle MIRO)

Nicolas Huyghe obtained a master’s degree in biomedical sciences at the Univeristé Catholique of Louvain. He did his master thesis in the laboratory of Pr. Sophie Lucas where he studied the TGF-β1 activation by human Tregs. He is currently doing a PhD in the laboratory of Pr. Marc Van den Eynde where he studies the immune microenvironment in colorectal cancer for therapeutic development.

Collection Overview

Immune-cells infiltrates play a central role in fields as transplantation, oncology, and immunology. In recent years, the development of Digital Image Analysis techniques allows precise identification of cells and the quantification of their spatial distribution.

To evaluate cell infiltrates, immune-based labelling techniques can be used. Images are then obtained, stored and digitally analyzed. Finally, the raw data needs to be interpreted using adapted statistical tests. To ensure the reproducibility and replicability of results, quantification necessitates reliable protocols for immune-labelling (e.g., immunohistochemistry). Furthermore, as image analysis is performed on digitalized 2D images, image acquisition and storage need to be standardized.

Digital Image Analysis can be performed with a variety of techniques and softwares. In general, pre-processing steps help to ensure image quality. Analysis consists on applying filter to the image to highlight the target tissue. Identification and quantification produce raw data, that need to be statistically explored to show aspects as the amount, distribution, and inter-relationships of infiltrating immune cells.

Quantification is a meticulous approach that permits to differentiate degrees of infiltration that would not be evident otherwise. In this collection, we will present curated articles to help scientist choose the fittest methodology to identify and quantify immune infiltrates in 2D digitalized images with software-based techniques.