U-net structures for segmentation of single mouse embryonic stem cells using three-dimensional confocal microscopy images.

Cell segmentation at a single cell resolution is required to provide insights for basic biology and application study. However, there are issues of low signal-to-noise ratio, weak fluorescence response, and insufficient resolution along the image stacking direction in 3D confocal images (volume). It has been difficult to segment out single cells from close or contacted cells in a cell volume using image processing methods or together with geometric processing methods. Recently, 3D deep learning methods have been used to avoid tedious parameter settings in the image and geometric processing, but still not easy to segment out close or contacted single cells. This paper proposes a 2D U-net to segment cell regions in high accuracy and computing performance. Better 3D cell images and single cell segmentation for close or contacted cells are achieved by combining a 3D U-net to detect the centers of single cells in the volume.