Authors:
Minhong Wang
1
;
Athanasios Tsanas
1
;
Guillaume Blin
2
and
Dave Robertson
3
Affiliations:
1
Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K.
;
2
MRC Center for Regenerative Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K.
;
3
School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K.
Keyword(s):
Embryonic Stem Cells, Different Types of Stem Cells, Statistical Analysis, Minimum Spanning Tree.
Abstract:
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) studies play an important role for understanding the molecular events that underlie cell lineage commitment and serve as models for the development of disease. However, the interactions between neighboring embryonic stem cells are not fully understood. Assessing proximity between different types of embryonic stem cells might provide more information about distinct behaviors of embryonic stem cells. In this study, we processed 186 cell colonies on disc constrained microdomains and 152 cell colonies on ellipse. We grouped cell colonies based on different observed patterns and grouped cells by their locations. By applying two measurements on embryonic stem cell colonies, minimum spanning tree and average distance to the five closest objects, we investigated the difference of proximity between different types of embryonic stem cells, the difference between grouped cell colonies and the difference between grouped cells. We found one type of ESC has a smaller av
erage path based on minimum spanning tree and higher proximity than the other type. We report consistent results for different types of embryonic stem cells: these findings may be useful to set benchmarks for empirical models which replicate ESC behaviors.
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