3-DIMENSIONAL COMPONENT LABELING OF DIGITAL CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE IMAGES ENUMERATES REPLICATION CENTERS IN BRDURD LABELED FIBROBLASTS

An algorithm (3Dlabel 1) for labeling three dimensional binary data se ts has been developed. Serial optical sections are acquired using a co nfocal laser scanning microscope. After filtering and thresholding ope rations, contiguous elements in the three dimensional data sets are id entified and labeled. The results are used to calculate the number and size of objects. Additionally, the labeled data are displayed by appl ying an algorithm (3Ddisp 1) to generate stereo pairs, in which label numbers are color coded and depth is cued by intensity. These procedur es have been applied in investigations of the temporal and spatial dis tribution of replication centers throughout S phase in BrdUrd pulse la beled mouse fibroblasts.