Spatiotemporal immune zonation of the human kidney

Abstract

Tissue-resident immune cells are important for organ homeostasis and defense. The epithelium may contribute to these functions directly or by cross-talk with immune cells. We used single-cell RNA sequencing to resolve the spatiotemporal immune topology of the human kidney. We reveal anatomically defined expression patterns of immune genes within the epithelial compartment, with antimicrobial peptide transcripts evident in pelvic epithelium in the mature, but not fetal, kidney. A network of tissue-resident myeloid and lymphoid immune cells was evident in both fetal and mature kidney, with postnatal acquisition of transcriptional programs that promote infection-defense capabilities. Epithelial-immune cross-talk orchestrated localization of antibacterial macrophages and neutrophils to the regions of the kidney most susceptible to infection. Overall, our study provides a global overview of how the immune landscape of the human kidney is zonated to counter the dominant immunological challenge.

Cell profiling of mouse acute kidney injury reveals conserved cellular responses to injury

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SARS-CoV-2 entry factors are highly expressed in nasal epithelial cells together with innate immune genes

“…Datasets were retrieved from published and unpublished datasets in multiple human tissues, including airways 26,27 , cornea (personal communication; Lako laboratory, Newcastle, UK), skeletal muscle (personal communication, Teichmann laboratory, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Zhang laboratory, Sun-Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China), ileum 28 , colon 29 , pancreas 30 , liver 31 , gallbladder (personal communication; Vallier laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK), heart (Teichmann laboratory, Hubner laboratory/Berlin, Seidmanns/Harvard and Noseda laboratory/Imperial College London, UK), kidney 32 , placenta/decidua 33 , testis 34 , prostate gland 35 , brain 36 , skin 37 , retina 38 , spleen 39 , esophagus 39 and fetal tissues 40,41 . Raw expression values were normalized and log transformed.…”

Cells and gene expression programs in the adult human heart

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