Computer-assisted analysis of in-vitro vasculogenesis and angiogenesis processes

In recent years many experimental investigations have been carried out on vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, the\nmechanisms of blood vessels formation. Neovascularization is a hallmark of embryogenesis and many other\nphysiological processes, such as wound healing or endometrium vascularization during the mestrual cycle.\nAngiogenesis also plays a key role in tumor growth, tumor metastasis and other pathological processes including\nmany inflammatory diseases. Understanding biological phenomena regulating angiogenesis is therefore essential\nfor clinical treatment of cancer and other angiogenesis-dependent diseases. This paper describes the\ndevelopment of a fully-automated computerized angiogenesis analysis system, which enables angiogenesis\nparameters to be quantified in an in-vitro model. The proposed methodology works on phase contrast\nmicroscopy snap photographs of cultured endothelial cell plates, and extracts a detailed graph-based\nrepresentation of the blood vessels network thus supporting accurate angiogenesis parameters measurement.