#GliaMorph - 3D Quantification of Müller Glia Cells

Cell morphology is known to be critical for cell function and health. This is also the case for glial cells, which rely on their complex shape to contact and support neurons. Mueller Glia (MG) are the principal retinal glial cell type with a stereotypic shape linked to their maturation and physiological status.

However, methods to quantify complex glial cell shape accurately and reproducibly are lacking. To address this gap in quantification approaches, we developed an analysis pipeline called "GliaMorph".

#GliaMorph is a modular toolkit developed to perform:

(i) image pre-processing,
(ii) semi-automatic region-of-interest (ROI) selection,
(iii) apicobasal texture analysis,
(iv) glia segmentation, and
(v) cell feature quantification.

We characterized MG on three levels, including (a) global image-level, (b) apicobasal texture, and (c) apicobasal vertical-to-horizontal alignment. Using GliaMorph, we show structural changes occurring in the developing retina.