ObjectiveProtective color restoration of faded digital pathology images based on color transfer algorithm.MethodsTwenty fresh tissue samples of invasive breast cancer from the pathology department of Qingdao Central Hospital in 2021 were screened. After HE staining, HE stained sections were irradiated with sunlight to simulate natural fading, and every 7 days was a fading cycle, and a total of 8 cycles were experienced. At the end of each cycle, the sections were digitally scanned to retain clear images, and the color changes of the sections during the fading process were recorded. The color transfer algorithm was applied to restore the color of the faded images; Adobe Lightroom Classic software presented the histogram of the image color distribution; UNet++ cell recognition segmentation model was used to identify the color restored images; Natural Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE), Information Entropy (Entropy), and Average Gradient (AG) were applied to evaluate the quality of the restored images.ResultsThe restored image color met the diagnostic needs of pathologists. Compared with the faded images, the NIQE value decreased (P<0.05), Entropy value increased (P<0.01), and AG value increased (P<0.01). The cell recognition rate of the restored image was significantly improved.ConclusionThe color transfer algorithm can effectively repair faded pathology images, restore the color contrast between nucleus and cytoplasm, improve the image quality, meet the diagnostic needs and improve the cell recognition rate of the deep learning model.