For the first time! Chinese scientists successfully constructed a human immune system development map

Recently, researchers from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhen Advanced Institute") successfully constructed for the first time a human immune cell development map with the widest tissue coverage, longest time span, and highest sampling density, and discovered a "new type" of immune cells - microglia-like cells.

The research results were published in the academic journal Cell on September 12. They were completed by Li Hanjie's research team from the Institute of Synthetic Biology of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology in collaboration with Shenzhen Bao'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shenzhen University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University and other institutions, and relied on Shenzhen's major scientific and technological infrastructure for synthetic biology research.

In this study, the team "decoded" 300,000 developing immune cells through a single-cell transcriptome sequencing platform they built independently, and successfully constructed a high-resolution human immune system development map with the widest organizational range, longest time span, and highest sampling density in the research field.

Li Hanjie, a researcher at the Institute of Synthetic Biology of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, said: "We performed indiscriminate single-cell transcriptome sequencing on a large number of samples. The advantage is that when it is unclear which cell subtype the sample belongs to, we can directly infer the cell type through its gene expression profile, which can better discover unknown cell populations."

The research team identified 11 major immune cell types and classified each major immune cell type more finely, ultimately annotating 56 immune cell subtypes, including 15 macrophages, and accurately depicting their spatiotemporal dynamic changes in the atlas.

It is reported that microglia, as the most important macrophages in the central nervous system, are traditionally only found in the brain and spinal cord, and do not appear in other organs or tissues. However, the research team observed that during the developmental period, there is a special cell subpopulation whose cell morphology, characteristic protein expression, and transcriptome expression profile are very similar to those of microglia. They are widely distributed in multiple tissues outside the central nervous system (including the epidermis, heart, and testicles). The research team named it "microglia-like cells."

Li Hanjie said: "The discovery of microglia-like cells will break the inherent perception that 'microglia only exist in the central nervous system'."

This research will promote the development of immunology and developmental biology. Han Jiahuai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Xiamen University, commented: " This research has expanded people's understanding of human immune development, especially the diversity, differentiation and function of macrophages, and will help us to deeply understand the function and regulatory mechanism of the immune system, and provide an important basis for disease diagnosis, immunotherapy and the development of new therapies. "

Source: Science and Technology Daily