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Updated: Oct 12, 2025

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Epigenetics and tissue immunity-Translating environmental cues into functional adaptations.

Zewen Kelvin Tuong^1,2, Benjamin J Stewart^1,2, Shuang Andrew Guo^1,2

¹Molecular Immunity Unit, Department of Medicine, MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Immunological Reviews

|November 25, 2021

Summary

Immune cells reside in organs, maintaining tissue health and defense. Epigenetic mechanisms regulate these cells, and their dysfunction can cause organ disease, especially in the kidney.

Keywords:

DNA methylation chromatin accessibility kidney macrophage tissue immunity

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Area of Science:

Immunology
Epigenetics
Organ Biology

Background:

Innate and adaptive immune cells reside in non-lymphoid organs, crucial for tissue homeostasis and defense.
Macrophages and tissue-resident T lymphocytes interact with structural cells, shaped by organ-specific cues.
Epithelial, endothelial, and stromal cells are vital for immune cell attraction, differentiation, and maintenance.

Purpose of the Study:

To review tissue immunity concepts, focusing on the mammalian kidney.
To discuss technologies for profiling epigenetic modifications in tissue immune cells, including single-cell methods.
To explore how epigenetic mechanisms influence immune cell development, function, and structural cell immunology.

Main Methods:

Review of current literature on tissue immunity and epigenetics.
Discussion of technologies for epigenetic profiling, including single-cell approaches.
Focus on the kidney as a model organ with unique environmental cues.

Main Results:

Tissue immune cells are essential for organ homeostasis and defense.
Epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation and histone modifications regulate immune cell transcription.
Dysregulation of these epigenetic processes leads to immune dysfunction and organ pathology.

Conclusions:

Epigenetic regulation is critical for tissue immune cell function and organ health.
The kidney's unique environment presents specific challenges and opportunities for studying tissue immunity.
Advanced profiling technologies are key to understanding the complex interplay between epigenetics and tissue-resident immunity.