PCIS contract in response to antigen-independent stimuli
To validate the model and determine the sensitivity of PCIS to non-specific antigen stimulations, FcɛRI-crosslinker, histamine and serotonin were selected as positive controls. All conditions elicited a strong, reproducible smooth muscle contraction response, elevated in comparison to the unstimulated control (Figure 3A; Video S1-6).
Based on raw video data, a novel software was designed to quantify smooth muscle contractions using object and movement detection of irregular shapes. This was achieved by tracking the overall movement of individual pixels within each frame (Figure 2) which were then quantified and graphed resulting in a curve of the contraction response. Total AUCs of each response per stimuli were compared, showing a significant increase in movement between the unstimulated slices and PCIS stimulated with the positive controls (Figure 3B).