New mapping technique reveals hidden immune cell neighborhoods in diseased tissues
Researchers have developed a way to visualize how immune cells organize themselves in specific tissue locations, with potential applications for treating cancer and inflammatory diseases. The approach could help companies and hospitals identify why some patients don't respond to immunotherapies and guide development of more targeted treatments.
Originaltitel: Uncovering Immune Niches in Health and Disease Using Spatial Transcriptomics
Spatial transcriptomics allows for the investigation of complex cellular ecosystems directly in their native tissues and enables the dissection of immune niches as spatially organized and functionally diverse microenvironments across homeostatic, inflammatory, and malignant settings. In this review, we examine how spatial transcriptomics tools have been applied to interrogate the cellular and molecular architecture of immune niches, including the emerging studies of B and T cell clonal niches. We focus on immune niches in intestinal and tumor tissues due to their importance to both health and pathology, discuss pressing immunological questions these technologies may help to address, and highlight future developments in the field.