Computer assisted image analysis of transmitter receptors
Abstract
Quantitative methodologies for the analysis of autoradiograms have been developed using computerized image analyzers coupled to standard TV camera input for microdensitometrical evaluations. The procedures include the assessment of the film response to radioactivity using appropriate standards calibrated according to brain tissue quenching (grey matter) and a non-linear conversion of optical density measurements into radioactivity values. In this procedure the best fitting mathematical model has been adopted to give as low variability as possible in the transformation of the data. The reliability of this approach has been evaluated both by means of computer assisted Monte-Carlo simulation procedures and by parallel biochemical determinations of the binding characteristics of transmitter receptors.