How Mitochondria Distribute and Align in HeLa Cells: A Computational Analysis On Electron Microscopy Images

This paper investigates the way in which mitochondria distribute and align inside HeLa cells observed with serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. Four models of alignment were considered: (1) mitochondria exhibiting no discernible alignment pattern, (2) mitochondria aligned pointing towards the nucleus of the cell, (3) mitochondria aligned all in one direction when viewed from above, (4) mitochondria aligned tangent to the surface of the nucleus. These models were named (1) unaligned , (2) petals , (3) racecars , and (4) clouds . The mitochondria, nucleus and plasma membrane of 25 individual cells were segmented. A total of 12,299 mitochondria were identified and analysed. Alignment of the major axis of each mitochondrion was calculated in two ways: relative to a ray that joins it to the centroid of the nucleus, and relative to a ray that joins it to the nucleus’ surface. Results indicate that mitochondria tend to align tangentially to the nucleus surface, i.e., a clouds model. In addition, differences in the spatial distributions of the mitochondria were found and quantified with clearly defined metrics. The methodology here presented can be extended to other acquisition settings where the distribution and alignment of cells could be important, for instance, histopathology.