Analysis of Fibrillar-Actin Rearrangements in Fetal Human Mesenchymal Stell Cells Using the Minkowski Fractal Dimension

摘要

Abstract Quantification of fibrillar-actin rearrangements using images is possible not only by measuring of relative fluorescence intensity, but also with the help of the calculation of the Minkowski fractal dimension. To calculate the fractal dimension, we used the FracLac plugin for ImageJ. Fibrillar-actin rearrangements were detected in fetal human mesenchymal stell cells after exposure to the actin-polymerization inhibitor latrunculin B or atrial natriuretic peptide, the effect of which on the actin cytoskeleton of mesenchymal stem cells we previously found. The image analysis performed in this work revealed changes in the fractal dimension, reflecting the reorganization of microfilaments in native cells. These findings show that Minkowski fractal dimension is a convenient tool for assessing fibrillar-actin rearrangements and can be used to supplement or replace the results of measuring the relative fluorescence intensity.