Modeling of Cytoskeletal Filaments in C17.2 Cells using ImageJ

Cytoskeletal filaments, such as actin, and nestin assist in sustaining many cellular function, including: differentiation, motility, cell shape, force generation, etc. Studies on how actin reorganizes can give us insights into how external stimuli affect cellular processes. The external stimuli chosen for this research was carbon nanotubes, which are single atom carbon sheets rolled into cylinders. For this study, neural stem cells, specifically C17.2 cells, were the focus. The goal is to observe how the distribution of actin is altered in the presence of carbon nanotubes. Over the last semester, I collected a catalog of data on the volume of actin in both treated and untreated C17.2 cells. Images of actin were captured using confocal microscopy. ImageJ then characterized the volume of the filaments at each level in the neural stem cells and quantified the actin distribution using thresholding techniques. The results, I obtained from comparing my data, showed how carbon nanotubes impact the distribution of actin throughout the cell.