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Germinal Center Texture Entropy as Possible Indicator of Humoral Immune Response: Immunophysiology Viewpoint

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Abstract

Purpose

In this article, we present the results indicating that spleen germinal center (GC) texture entropy determined by gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) method is related to humoral immune response.

Procedures

Spleen tissue was obtained from eight outbred male short-haired guinea pigs previously immunized by sheep red blood cells (SRBC). A total of 312 images from 39 germinal centers (156 GC light zone images and 156 GC dark zone images) were acquired and analyzed by GLCM method. Angular second moment, contrast, correlation, entropy, and inverse difference moment were calculated for each image. Humoral immune response to SRBC was measured using T cell-dependent antibody response (TDAR) assay.

Results

Statistically highly significant negative correlation was detected between light zone entropy and the number of TDAR plaque-forming cells (r s = −0.86, p < 0.01). The entropy decreased as the plaque-forming cells increased and vice versa. A statistically significant negative correlation was also detected between dark zone entropy values and the number of plaque-forming cells (r s = −0.69, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Germinal center texture entropy may be a powerful indicator of humoral immune response. This study is one of the first to point out the potential scientific value of GLCM image texture analysis in lymphoid tissue cytoarchitecture evaluation. Lymphoid tissue texture analysis could become an important and affordable addition to the conventional immunophysiology techniques.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to The Ministry of Education and Science, Republic of Serbia, Research Projects: oi-175059 and iii-41027. The authors also acknowledge the work of Julio E. Cabrera (National Institutes of Health, USA) and Toby C. Cornish (Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA) for integration of GLCM analysis into the National Institutes of Health “ImageJ” software.

Conflict of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest regarding this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Višegradska 26/II, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Igor Pantic

  2. Institute of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Senka Pantic

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  1. Igor Pantic
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  2. Senka Pantic
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Correspondence to Igor Pantic.

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Pantic, I., Pantic, S. Germinal Center Texture Entropy as Possible Indicator of Humoral Immune Response: Immunophysiology Viewpoint. Mol Imaging Biol 14, 534–540 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-011-0531-1

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