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Updated: Mar 15, 2026
High-Dimensionality Flow Cytometry for Immune Function Analysis of Dissected Implant Tissues
Published on: September 15, 2021
Unsupervised High-Dimensional Analysis Aligns Dendritic Cells across Tissues and Species
Martin Guilliams1, Charles-Antoine Dutertre2, Charlotte L Scott3
1Unit of Immunoregulation and Mucosal Immunology, VIB Inflammation Research Center, Ghent 9052, Belgium; Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium; Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Aix-Marseille Université, Inserm, CNRS, 13288 Marseille, France.
This study introduces a universal toolbox for identifying dendritic cells (DCs) and their subsets (cDC1, cDC2, pDCs) across species using flow cytometry. This method ensures accurate DC analysis without macrophage contamination, enabling standardized research.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Dendritic cells (DCs) are crucial antigen-presenting cells with therapeutic potential.
- Identifying distinct DC subsets across tissues and species is challenging, often complicated by macrophage contamination.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a universal toolbox for automated DC identification.
- To enable standardized analysis of DC populations across different tissues and species, minimizing macrophage contamination.
Main Methods:
- Utilized unsupervised analysis of conventional flow cytometry and mass cytometry data.
- Employed a minimal set of lineage-imprinted markers for DC subset identification.
- Validated the toolbox across mouse, macaque, and human tissues.
Main Results:
- Successfully subdivided DCs into conventional type 1 (cDC1), conventional type 2 (cDC2), and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) universally.
- Demonstrated the ability to identify DCs without macrophage contamination.
- Showcased the utility of the framework for further characterization of DC heterogeneity.
Conclusions:
- The developed toolbox provides a universal, high-throughput, and standardized method for DC analysis.
- This framework facilitates the study of DC populations in mutant mice and human patients.
- Enables deeper understanding of DC heterogeneity across tissues and during inflammatory conditions.
