Transcriptional profile of human thymus reveals IGFBP5 is correlated with age-related thymic involution.

ABSTRACT: Thymus is the main immune organ which is responsible for the production of self-tolerant and functional T cells, but it shrinks rapidly with age after birth. Although studies have researched thymus development and involution in mouse, the critical regulators that arise with age in human thymus remain unclear. We collected public human single-cell transcriptomic sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets containing 350,678 cells from 36 samples, integrated them as a cell atlas of human thymus. Clinical samples were collected and experiments were performed for validation. We found early thymocyte-specific signaling and regulons which played roles in thymocyte migration, proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation. Nevertheless, signaling patterns including number, strength and path completely changed

SUBMITTER: Yang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10839013 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature