Cell-graph modeling of salivary gland morphology

Branching morphogenesis is a developmental process shared by many organs, including the submandibular salivary gland. During morphogenesis, cells within the gland undergo rearrangements to cause changes in the overall tissue morphology. This work presents a methodology based on cell-graphs to quantify these changes in cellular arrangements. Multiple confocal images of developing salivary gland organ cultures are captured. These cultures are immunostained with a nuclear marker and an epithelial marker to identify epithelial cells as separate from mesenchymal cells. Confocal images are stitched and segmented to identify epithelial and mesenchymal nuclei. Cell-graphs are constructed to model the structural organization of epithelial and mesenchymal cells. Cell-graph metrics are calculated to extract mathematical features that discriminate epithelial vs mesenchymal cells organizations and also distinguish between glands treated with pharmacological inhibitors vs vehicle control. The results indicate that cell-graph features can be used to both describe and predict the developing salivary gland to provide insights into cellular and physical processes driving morphogenesis.