Motion magnification analysis of microscopy videos of biological cells

Abstract

It is well recognized that isolated cardiac muscle cells beat in a periodic manner. Recently, evidence indicates that other, non-muscle cells, also perform periodic motions that are either imperceptible under conventional lab microscope lens or practically not easily amenable for analysis of oscillation amplitude, frequency, phase of movement and its direction. Here, we create a real-time video analysis tool to visually magnify and explore sub-micron rhythmic movements performed by biological cells and the induced movements in their surroundings. Using this tool, we suggest that fibroblast cells perform small fluctuating movements with a dominant frequency that is dependent on their surrounding substrate and its stiffness.

Applying video motion magnification to reveal spontaneous tympanic membrane displacement as an indirect measure of intracranial pressure in patients with brain pathologies

“…Our approach is based on the relatively new method in biomedicine known as VMM which allows us to reveal micrometre-scale movements [ 32 ]. The VMM techniques were applied successfully as a relatively low-cost modality for measuring small motions in different fields of biomedicine: in ophthalmology to reveal the corneal pulse [ 23 ], in medical imaging to visualize local variations in the stiffness of cardiovascular tissue [ 22 ], in posturography to improves the clinician’s ability to identify atremulous hands as Parkinsonian [ 32 ], and in analysis of microscopic videos of biological cells [ 28 ]. VMM was also applied to improve free flap monitoring during surgery [ 20 ] and as a video-optimizing approach in endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery [ 1 ].…”