Quantifying spatiotemporal parameters of cellular exocytosis in micropatterned cells

Live imaging of the pHluorin tagged Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-factor Attachment protein REceptor (v-SNARE) Vesicle-associated membrane protein 7 (VAMP7) by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) is a straightforward way to explore secretion from the lysosomal compartment. Taking advantage of cell culture on micropatterned surfaces to normalize cell shape, a variety of statistical tools were employed to perform a spatial analysis of secretory patterns. Using Ripley’s K function and a statistical test based on the nearest neighbor distance (NND), we confirmed that secretion from lysosomes is not a random process but shows significant clustering. Of note, our analysis revealed that exocytosis events are also clustered in nonadhesion areas, indicating that adhesion molecules are not the only structures that can induce secretory hot spots at the plasma membrane. Still, we found that cell adhesion enhances clustering. In addition to precisely defined adhesive and nonadhesive areas, the circular geometry of these micropatterns allows the use of polar coordinates, simplifying analyses. We used Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and the cumulative distribution function on polar coordinates of exocytosis events to identify enriched areas of exocytosis. In ring-shaped micropattern cells, clustering occurred at the border between the adhesive and nonadhesive areas. Our analysis illustrates how statistical tools can be employed to investigate spatial distributions of diverse biological processes.