WIS‐neuromath enables versatile high throughput analyses of neuronal processes

Abstract

Automated analyses of neuronal morphology are important for quantifying connectivity and circuitry in vivo, as well as in high content imaging of primary neuron cultures. The currently available tools for quantification of neuronal morphology either are highly expensive commercial packages or cannot provide automated image quantifications at single cell resolution. Here, we describe a new software package called WIS-NeuroMath, which fills this gap and provides solutions for automated measurement of neuronal processes in both in vivo and in vitro preparations. Diverse image types can be analyzed without any preprocessing, enabling automated and accurate detection of neurites followed by their quantification in a number of application modules. A cell morphology module detects cell bodies and attached neurites, providing information on neurite length, number of branches, cell body area, and other parameters for each cell. A neurite length module provides a solution for images lacking cell bodies, such as tissue sections. Finally, a ganglion explant module quantifies outgrowth by identifying neurites at different distances from the ganglion. Quantification of a diverse series of preparations with WIS-NeuroMath provided data that were well matched with parallel analyses of the same preparations in established software packages such as MetaXpress or NeuronJ. The capabilities of WIS-NeuroMath are demonstrated in a range of applications, including in dissociated and explant cultures and histological analyses on thin and whole-mount sections. WIS-NeuroMath is freely available to academic users, providing a versatile and cost-effective range of solutions for quantifying neurite growth, branching, regeneration, or degeneration under different experimental paradigms.

Association of Cell Adhesion Molecules Contactin-6 and Latrophilin-1 Regulates Neuronal Apoptosis

“…For analysis of neuronal morphological parameters, about 110 transfected neurons were examined per condition of each independent experiment ( n = 3). WIS-Neuromath (Weizmann Institute) software was used for determining morphological parameters (Rishal et al, 2013), which included total branch number, soma size, total outgrowth and maximal process length. For analysis of neuronal apoptosis in the protein overexpression experiments, the immunoreactivity of caspase-3 in about 60 transfected neurons was quantified per condition of each independent experiment ( n = 3).…”

Neuronal activity and AMPA‐type glutamate receptor activation regulates the morphological development of oligodendrocyte precursor cells

“…While NeuronStudio provided accurate models of OPC process fields, the manual tracing method proved costly in terms of time. WIS‐NeuroMath (NeuroMath), a recently published noncommercial automated tracing software (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Rishal et al, ) provided a more time‐efficient method for tracing OPC. This manual tracing method was used in experiments investigating the effects of D‐AP5 and MK‐801 on OPC morphology (Fig.…”

Phosphatidylserine Ameliorates Neurodegenerative Symptoms and Enhances Axonal Transport in a Mouse Model of Familial Dysautonomia

“…The system automatically collected 10 images per well. Automated analyses of the results were performed using WIS-Neuromath software developed at the Weizmann Institute (www.weizmann.ac.il/vet/IC/software/wis-neuromath) [99]. For DRG culture statistical analysis, we filmed on average 70 fields of four different experiments for each group.…”