Cross-tissue immune cell analysis reveals tissue-specific features in humans

Despite their crucial role in health and disease, our knowledge of immune cells within human tissues remains limited. We surveyed the immune compartment of 16 tissues from 12 adult donors by single-cell RNA sequencing and VDJ sequencing generating a dataset of ~360,000 cells. To systematically resolve immune cell heterogeneity across tissues, we developed CellTypist, a machine learning tool for rapid and precise cell type annotation. Using this approach, combined with detailed curation, we determined the tissue distribution of finely phenotyped immune cell types, revealing hitherto unappreciated tissue-specific features and clonal architecture of T and B cells. Our multitissue approach lays the foundation for…

• WT
  Wellcome Trust

  Awards: 211276, RG79413, 108413/A/15/D, 206194, BRC-1215-20014
• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research

  Award: BRC-1215-20014
• DO
  Department of Health and Social Care
• EC
  European Commission

  Awards: 646794, 675395, H2020
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: AI106697, H2020
• H2
  Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

  Award: 675395
• NC
  NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre

  Award: BRC-1215-20014