A four-dimensional framework for classifying functional states in immune cells

The immune system protects against pathogens, responds to abiotic stress, maintains homeostasis, and supports tissue repair. Recent work identified four transcriptional dimensions of immune variation-immune resistance, inflammation, metabolism, and tissue repair-each linked to distinct cellular functions. Here, we integrate the analysis of these four dimensions (4D) across multiple immune-mediated diseases and show that they are distinct yet complementary, jointly explain a substantial fraction of inter-individual transcriptional variation, and coexist at the molecular level across diverse immune cell types. We further show that this 4D model captures the main recurrent patterns of immune variation across diseases and is robust even in the case of incomplete and noisy data. These findings suggest that the transcriptional 4D model provides a framework for classifying immune conditions regardless of disease type. We further demonstrate and discuss how this 4D classification can be used to improve the approach to prophylactic and therapeutic interventions.