An in vivo microscopy dataset of immune cells for the characterization of apoptotic cell death

Apoptotic cell death is pivotal for multiple biological processes including tissue homeostasis, embryological development, and host defense. Recent advancements in intravital microscopy have enabled the study of apoptosis in vivo under a variety of experimental conditions, such as infection and cancer. However, the limited throughput of this technology, together with a lack of openly accessible datasets, circumscribes the extent of cell death research in vivo. This problem affects the development of algorithms for the automatic detection and characterization of apoptosis, which requires the integration of extensive and curated datasets. To address these needs, we present a dataset of apoptotic immune cells carefully selected to advance the field of apoptosis classification and detection. This dataset includes apoptotic events of immune cells, such as neutrophils, eosinophils, and dendritic cells, acquired within the spleen and lymph node of mice under inflammatory conditions. Moreover, the dataset provides the coordinates in space and time of the apoptotic events as well as their 3D reconstruction and the annotation of the cell morphology at each time point.