Tissue-wide profiling of human lungs reveals spatial sequestration of macrophages in tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: The immune response to human tuberculosis (TB), particularly in the context of complex lung pathology, remains incompletely understood. Here, we employed whole-slide spatial proteomics to map immune cell organization in TB-affected human lung tissues. Our analysis revealed pronounced spatial segregation of major immune cell populations in non-necrotizing TB lesions. At the tissue level, macrophages and lymphocytes formed distinct cellular communities associated with specific pathological features. At the lesion level, macrophages and B cells showed an inverse relationship in both abundance and spatial distribution. Proinflammatory T cells preferentially accumulated in macrophage-rich lesions but remained largely separated from macrophages. Interestingly, lesions exhibiting clear segregatio

SUBMITTER: Xiao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12478358 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature