Immune cell characteristics mapped across multiple tissues

Experts have shed new light on the types and traits of immune cells that can be found in the human body, from early life to adulthood.

Previously underexplored immune cell populations have been the focus of a Newcastle University study, mapping across multiple tissues in development and adulthood.

The work provides new insights into how our immune system works, aiding the development of new therapies to treat immunity-related disorders.

Professor Muzlifah Haniffa, Theme Lead for the BRC’s Skin and Oral Diseases theme and senior author on the study, comments:

This comprehensive atlas of human immune development reveals tissues involved in the formation of blood and immune cells, enhancing our understanding of immune disorders. In cooperation with the other studies it enables mapping of the immune system from development to adulthood, revealing cell types that are lost as we grow up. It also helps to inform cell engineering and regenerative medicine research.

The study was part of the international Human Cell Atlas (HCA) consortium, which is aiming to map every cell type in the human body as a basis for both understanding human health and for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.

Published in Science, researchers created an atlas of the developing human immune system across nine organs. They used spatial transcriptomics and single-cell RNA sequencing to map the exact location of specific cells within developing tissues.

Read the full article here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2022/05/humancellatlas/