Automated Quantitative Analysis of Coat and Skin Coloration in Laboratory Animals
July 2025
in “
Drug development & registration
”
TLDR A new algorithm accurately analyzes animal coat and skin colors quickly and easily.
The study developed and tested a novel algorithm for quantitative analysis of coat and skin coloration in laboratory animals using R programming language. The algorithm involves preprocessing images, hierarchical color clustering, and calculating color cluster areas. It was applied to digital photographs of guinea pigs and a mouse with depilation alopecia, revealing specific color proportions and changes in hairless skin area over time. The method is fast, straightforward, and suitable for batch processing, providing reproducible data for statistical analysis without the need for specialized software.
