Quantitative analysis of age-related nuclei variation in mice skeletal muscle

• Main Author: Wee, Yi Ting.
• Other Authors: Lee Kijoon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Biomathematics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/39517
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The musculoskeletal system provides mobility which may suffer from alterations caused by ageing. Ageing affects all species and greatly influences the activities and quality of life. Morphological studies of the complex include myofiber morphology and nuclei localization. Gastrocnemius-Soleus muscle from three different age groups of C57BL6 (male) mice was investigated for nuclei variation using image processing performed in Matlab. The presence of central nuclei is an inherited neuromuscular disorder and is characterized by a centrally placed nucleus surrounded by myofibre. Central nuclei‟s characteristics are seen in all muscles; however it is unclear whether there is any correlation between its presences with age. Automatic segmentation of central nuclei were processed using novel algorithms after segmentation of nuclei and extracellular matrix using classical methods such as Otsu‟s thresholding followed by edge detection. Single factor ANOVA test was later performed where it shows the quantified amount of central nuclei was statistically different across the three age groups with P-value lesser than 0.05. The entire segmentation procedure was fully automated and the centrality of segmented central nuclei was determined.