Phenomenological and fractal characteristics of microgeometry of cellular membranes in AFM-images

Phenomenological ($S_y$, $S_a$, $S_q$, entropy) and fractal characteristics (characteristic fractal dimension, the Richardson dimension and the Hurst exponent) were calculated to quantitatively estimate the structural and morphological changes of the surface of the cells undergoing apoptosis. Their analysis showed that it is possible to establish an accurate tendency in the change of the microgeometry of a cellular membrane by means of phenomenological characteristics. Whereas fractal characteristics allow one to obtain the additional information about the orderliness of the structure of membrane surface. It was established that phenomenological and especially fractal parameters make it possible to reveal structural infringements of cellular membranes, which cannot be visually defined.