Multifractal analysis of embryonic eye structures from female mice with dietary folic acid deficiency. Part I: Fractal dimension, lacunarity, divergence, and multifractal spectrum

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of low maternal folic acid (FA) status on many eye structures in embryonic mice using multifractal analysis, a method for describing complex structural patterns. To do this, we used the FracLac plugin for ImageJ to analyse binary digital images of cornea, lens, retina, and vitreous after immunohistochemical analysis using anti-collagen IV or anti-laminin-1 antibodies. The box-counting and gliding box methods were used to generate metrics including the fractal dimension, lacunarity, divergence, and multifractal spectrum distance metrics for each ocular structure. Results were analysed using bootstrap resampling techniques and the Kruskal-Wallis significance test. For all structures and staining methods studied, differences between embryos from control vs FA-deficient females were detectable in lacunarity plots and multifractal spectra, and statistically significant in cornea, lens, retina and vitreous. Multifractal analysis detected even slight differences in tissue textures presumably attributable to altered expression of extracellular matrix molecules.