Generative adversarial network model to classify human induced pluripotent stem cell-cardiomyocytes based on maturation level

Our study develops a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based method that generates faithful synthetic image data of human cardiomyocytes at varying stages in their maturation process, as a tool to significantly enhance the classification accuracy of cells and ultimately assist the throughput of computational analysis of cellular structure and functions. Human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) were cultured on micropatterned collagen coated hydrogels of physiological stiffnesses to facilitate maturation and optical measurements were performed for their structural and functional analyses. Control groups were cultured on collagen coated glass well plates. These image recordings were used as the real data to train the GAN model. The results show the GAN approach is able to replicate true features from the real data, and inclusion of such synthetic data significantly improves the classification accuracy compared to usage of only real experimental data that is often limited in scale and diversity. The proposed model outperformed four conventional machine learning algorithms with respect to improved data generalization ability and data classification by incorporating synthetic data. This work demonstrates the importance of integrating synthetic data in situations where there are limited sample sizes and thus, effectively addresses the challenges imposed by data availability.