Cell evaluation device, cell evaluation method, and cell evaluation program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10443029-B2
Application number	US-201615363926-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2016
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Oct 15, 2019
Grant date	Oct 15, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed are a cell evaluation device, a cell evaluation method, and a non-transitory computer readable recording medium recorded with a cell evaluation program capable of evaluating individual cells in a cell image obtained by imaging a cell group with high accuracy. The cell evaluation device includes an image acquisition unit 30 that acquires a cell image obtained by imaging a cell group; a cell evaluation unit 32 that specifies an evaluation target cell and peripheral cells around the evaluation target cell in the cell group and evaluates the evaluation target cell based on evaluation results of the peripheral cells.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cell evaluation device comprising:
a central processing unit that acquires a cell image obtained by imaging a cell group,
recognizes individual cells in the cell group, specifies an evaluation target cell and peripheral cells around the evaluation target cell among the recognized individual cells, and fixes evaluation of the evaluation target cell based on evaluation results of the peripheral cells and an evaluation result of the evaluation target cell,
wherein the central processing unit determines a region for specifying the peripheral cells based on a shape of a cell nucleus of at least one of the evaluation target cells and specifies cells of which all or a part are included in the region as the peripheral cells.

2. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the central processing unit fixes the evaluation of the evaluation target cell based on only evaluation results of cells of which evaluation is possible among the evaluation results of the peripheral cells.

3. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the central processing unit enlarges the region for specifying the peripheral cells until the number of cells present in the region reaches a predetermined number.

4. The cell evaluation device according to claim 2 ,
wherein the central processing unit enlarges the region for specifying the peripheral cells until the number of cells present in the region reaches a predetermined number.

5. The cell evaluation device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the central processing unit enlarges the region in a longitudinal direction and in a transverse direction of the cell image, respectively.

6. The cell evaluation device according to claim 4 ,
wherein the central processing unit enlarges the region in a longitudinal direction and in a transverse direction of the cell image, respectively.

7. The cell evaluation device according to claim 5 ,
wherein the central processing unit determines an aspect ratio of the region in the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction.

8. The cell evaluation device according to claim 5 ,
wherein the central processing unit determines the number of cells that are investigated in the longitudinal direction and the number of cells that are investigated in the transverse direction when enlarging the region.

9. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the central processing unit sets weights with respect to the evaluation results of the peripheral cells based on distances between the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells.

10. The cell evaluation device according to claim 2 ,
wherein the central processing unit sets weights with respect to the evaluation results of the peripheral cells based on distances between the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells.

11. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the central processing unit sets weights with respect to the evaluation results of the peripheral cells based on distances between the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells.

12. The cell evaluation device according to claim 2 ,
wherein the central processing unit sets weights with respect to the evaluation results of the peripheral cells based on distances between the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells.

13. The cell evaluation device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the central processing unit sets weights with respect to the evaluation results of the peripheral cells based on distances between the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells.

14. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the central processing unit evaluates an undifferentiated state or a differentiated state of the evaluation target cell.

15. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the central processing unit evaluates the degree of differentiation of the evaluation target cell.

16. The cell evaluation device according to claim 1 , the central processing unit further sets a boundary in the cell image based on a state of the cell group,
wherein when specifying the peripheral cells, the central processing unit specifies only cells that are present in a divided region where the evaluation target cell is present among a plurality of divided regions divided by the boundary, as the peripheral cells.

17. A cell evaluation method using the cell evaluation device according to claim 1 comprising:
acquiring the cell image obtained by imaging the cell group;
recognizing individual cells in the cell group, specifying the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells around the evaluation target cell among the recognized individual cells, and fixing evaluation of the evaluation target cell based on evaluation results of the peripheral cells and an evaluation result of the evaluation target cell; and
determining a region for specifying the peripheral cells based on a shape of a cell nucleus of at least one of the evaluation target cells and specifies cells of which all or a part are included in the region as the peripheral cells.

18. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium recorded with a cell evaluation program that causes a computer to function as the cell evaluation device according to claim 1 comprising:
an image acquisition unit that acquires the cell image obtained by imaging the cell group; and
a cell evaluation unit that recognizes individual cells in the cell group, specifies the evaluation target cell and the peripheral cells around the evaluation target cell among the recognized individual cells, and fixes evaluation of the evaluation target cell based on evaluation results of the peripheral cells and an evaluation result of the evaluation target cell,
wherein the cell evaluation unit determines a region for specifying the peripheral cells based on a shape of a cell nucleus of at least one of the evaluation target cells and specifies cells of which all or a part are included in the region as the peripheral cells.

Assignees

• Fujifilm Corp

Inventors

• Matsubara Kenta

Classifications

• C12M41/12

  of temperature (controlling the temperature of chemical or physical processes B01J19/0013, heating or cooling apparatus for laboratory use B01L7/00) · CPC title

• G06T2207/30242

  Counting objects in image · CPC title

• G01N21/75

  Systems in which material is subjected to a chemical reaction, the progress or the result of the reaction being investigated (systems in which material is burnt in a flame or plasma G01N21/72, G01N21/73) · CPC title

• C12M41/36 Primary

  of biomass, e.g. colony counters or by turbidity measurements (electrooptical investigation of individual particles G01N15/14, flow cytometers G01N15/1404) · CPC title

• C12M41/48

  Automatic or computerized control (automatic analysis G01N35/00) · CPC title