Quantification in optical sectioning microscopy: a comparison of some deconvolution algorithms in view of 3D image segmentation

Abstract

Optical microscopy allows us to study living fluorescent biological samples. Optical sectioning is a technique to obtain three-dimensional (3D) information about the observed object by acquiring a stack of two-dimensional (2D) images at different depths through the sample. However, the specific shape of the 3D optical transfer function of the optical microscope leads to images presenting defects, such as, for example, an apparent elongation along the vertical axis. It is therefore necessary to preprocess the images before any quantitative measurement is performed. This image restoration can be obtained by deconvolution of the acquired 3D image. We have tested several deconvolution algorithms on synthetic images, obtained by convolution of a solid sphere with a measured point spread function. We have compared the restored image with the original one (shape and volume). The linear least-squares method is fast, but artefacts are still present in the restored images. The Carrington method is well adapted to thin objects. The maximum likelihood - expectation maximization method leads to a good reconstruction of the object, but is very time consuming.