A spatial human thymus cell atlas mapped to a continuous tissue axis.

ABSTRACT: T cells develop from circulating precursor cells, which enter the thymus and migrate through specialized subcompartments that support their maturation and selection¹. In humans, this process starts in early fetal development and is highly active until thymic involution in adolescence. To map the microanatomical underpinnings of this process in pre- and early postnatal stages, we established a quantitative morphological framework for the thymus-the Cortico-Medullary Axis-and used it to perform a spatially resolved analysis. Here, by applying this framework to a curated multimodal single-cell atlas, spatial transcriptomics and high-resolution multiplex imaging data, we demonstrate establishment of the lobular cytokine network, canonical thymocyte trajectories and thymic epithelial

SUBMITTER: Yayon N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11578893 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature