A New Software Tool for Computer Assisted In Vivo High-Content Analysis of Transplanted Fluorescent Cells in intact Zebrafish Larvae

Acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes are cancers of the bone marrow with poor prognosis in frail and older patients. To investigate cancer pathophysiology and therapies, confocal imaging of fluorescent cancer cells, and their response to treatments in zebrafish larvae, yields valuable information. While zebrafish larvae are well suited for confocal imaging, the lack of efficient processing of large datasets remains a severe bottleneck. To alleviate this problem, we present a software-tool to segment cells from confocal images and track characteristics such as volume, location in the larva and fluorescent intensity on a single-cell basis. Using this software-tool, we were able to characterize the responses of the cancer cell lines Molm-13 and MDS-L to established treatments. By utilizing the computer-assisted processing of confocal images as presented here, more information can be obtained while being less time-consuming and reducing the demand of manual data handling, when compared to a manual approach, thereby accelerating the pursuit of novel anti-cancer treatments. Summary statementWe present a software tool for automatic cell segmentation of fluorescent cancer cells in zebrafish larvae to determine characteristics of the cancer cell population on a single-cell basis.