Vesalius: high-resolution in silico anatomization of spatial transcriptomic data using image analysis

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Characterization of tissue architecture promises to deliver insights into development, cell communication, and disease. In silico spatial domain retrieval methods have been developed for spatial transcriptomics (ST) data assuming transcriptional similarity of neighboring barcodes. However, domain retrieval approaches with this assumption cannot work in complex tissues composed of multiple cell types. This task becomes especially challenging in cellular resolution ST methods. We developed Vesalius to decipher tissue anatomy from ST data by applying image processing technology. Vesalius uniquely detected territories composed of multiple cell types and successfully recovered tissue structures in high-resolution ST data including in mouse brain, embryo, liver, and colon. Utilizing this tissue architecture, Vesalius identified tissue morphology-specific gene expression and regional specific gene expression changes for astrocytes, interneuron, oligodendrocytes, and entorhinal cells in the mouse brain.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere11080
JournalMolecular Systems Biology
Volume18
Issue number9
Number of pages16
ISSN1744-4292
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

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© 2022 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

    Research areas

  • anatomical territories, spatial domains, spatial transcriptomics, tissue architecture, tissue heterogeneity

ID: 319247180