Score-based Diffusion Model for Unpaired Virtual Histology Staining

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Anran, Wang, Xiaofei, Cai, Jing, Li, Chao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Liu, Anran
Wang, Xiaofei
Cai, Jing
Li, Chao
author_facet Liu, Anran
Wang, Xiaofei
Cai, Jing
Li, Chao
contents Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining visualizes histology but lacks specificity for diagnostic markers. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining provides protein-targeted staining but is restricted by tissue availability and antibody specificity. Virtual staining, i.e., computationally translating the H&E image to its IHC counterpart while preserving the tissue structure, is promising for efficient IHC generation. Existing virtual staining methods still face key challenges: 1) effective decomposition of staining style and tissue structure, 2) controllable staining process adaptable to diverse tissue and proteins, and 3) rigorous structural consistency modelling to handle the non-pixel-aligned nature of paired H&E and IHC images. This study proposes a mutual-information (MI)-guided score-based diffusion model for unpaired virtual staining. Specifically, we design 1) a global MI-guided energy function that disentangles the tissue structure and staining characteristics across modalities, 2) a novel timestep-customized reverse diffusion process for precise control of the staining intensity and structural reconstruction, and 3) a local MI-driven contrastive learning strategy to ensure the cellular level structural consistency between H&E-IHC images. Extensive experiments demonstrate the our superiority over state-of-the-art approaches, highlighting its biomedical potential. Codes will be open-sourced upon acceptance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_23184
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Score-based Diffusion Model for Unpaired Virtual Histology Staining
Liu, Anran
Wang, Xiaofei
Cai, Jing
Li, Chao
Image and Video Processing
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining visualizes histology but lacks specificity for diagnostic markers. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining provides protein-targeted staining but is restricted by tissue availability and antibody specificity. Virtual staining, i.e., computationally translating the H&E image to its IHC counterpart while preserving the tissue structure, is promising for efficient IHC generation. Existing virtual staining methods still face key challenges: 1) effective decomposition of staining style and tissue structure, 2) controllable staining process adaptable to diverse tissue and proteins, and 3) rigorous structural consistency modelling to handle the non-pixel-aligned nature of paired H&E and IHC images. This study proposes a mutual-information (MI)-guided score-based diffusion model for unpaired virtual staining. Specifically, we design 1) a global MI-guided energy function that disentangles the tissue structure and staining characteristics across modalities, 2) a novel timestep-customized reverse diffusion process for precise control of the staining intensity and structural reconstruction, and 3) a local MI-driven contrastive learning strategy to ensure the cellular level structural consistency between H&E-IHC images. Extensive experiments demonstrate the our superiority over state-of-the-art approaches, highlighting its biomedical potential. Codes will be open-sourced upon acceptance.
title Score-based Diffusion Model for Unpaired Virtual Histology Staining
topic Image and Video Processing
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23184