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Updated: Jun 25, 2025
Author Spotlight: Unveiling the Polyfunctionality and Heterogeneity in Immune Responses
Published on: March 8, 2024
Quantitative live-cell imaging of secretion activity reveals dynamic immune responses
Mai Yamagishi1,2,3, Kaede Miyata2, Takashi Kamatani2,4,5,6
1Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Insights
A new quantitative live-cell imaging of secretion activity (qLCI-S) technology enables high-throughput monitoring of cytokine secretion from individual cells. This method links secretion dynamics to gene expression, advancing immunology research with limited human samples.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
- Genomics
Background:
- Cytokine secretion quantification is crucial in immunology.
- Individual cell secretion profiles, especially from limited human samples, are poorly understood.
- Existing methods lack high-throughput, long-term single-cell secretion analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce a novel technology for quantitative live-cell imaging of secretion activity (qLCI-S).
- Enable high-throughput, dual-color, single-cell secretion monitoring over extended periods.
- Facilitate subsequent transcriptome analysis of individual cells based on observed secretion phenotypes.
Main Methods:
- Developed and applied quantitative live-cell imaging of secretion activity (qLCI-S).
- Utilized high-throughput and dual-color imaging for secretion monitoring.
- Performed single-cell transcriptome analysis correlated with secretion phenotypes.
Main Results:
- Visualized characteristic temporal cytokine secretion patterns of rare group 2 innate lymphoid cells.
- Identified minor subpopulations with significantly enhanced cytokine production.
- Linked enhanced secretion to specific gene expression patterns of stimuli receptors.
Conclusions:
- qLCI-S technology provides unprecedented insight into single-cell secretion dynamics.
- The technology is effective even for rare cell populations in limited human samples.
- This approach enables exploration of gene expression signatures underlying secretory functions.
Abstract:
Quantification of cytokine secretion has facilitated advances in the field of immunology, yet the dynamic and varied secretion profiles of individual cells, particularly those obtained from limited human samples, remain obscure. Herein, we introduce a technology for quantitative live-cell imaging of secretion activity (qLCI-S) that enables high-throughput and dual-color monitoring of secretion activity at the single-cell level over several days, followed by transcriptome analysis of individual cells based on their phenotype. The efficacy of qLCI-S was demonstrated by visualizing the characteristic temporal pattern of cytokine secretion of group 2 innate lymphoid cells, which constitute less than 0.01% of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and by revealing minor subpopulations with enhanced cytokine production. The underlying mechanism of this feature was linked to the gene expression of stimuli receptors. This technology paves the way for exploring gene expression signatures linked to the spatiotemporal dynamic nature of various secretory functions.
