Ca2+ Sparks Detection and Classification using Gaussian-Mexican Hat Wavelet

It is evidenced that Ca
²⁺
plays a critical role in cell activities. Understanding and analysis of a Ca
²⁺
sparks event can provide critical information in cell communications. It is known that a Ca
²⁺
spark spatial spread in a local area can be modeled by a Gaussian distribution. There are some available methods in Ca
²⁺
spark detection, but little research has been done to quantitatively analyze and classify the Ca
²⁺
sparks into single or multiple release events. In this paper, a new method based on Gaussian-Mexican Hat Wavelet is proposed to automatically classify Ca
²⁺
sparks into single release events or multiple releases events. Then Ca
²⁺
sparks from single release events are further categorized into different energy levels. The experiment results using mouse skeletal muscle fiber cells show this method is promising.