Gene expression profiling of human tissue-resident immune cells: Comparing blood and liver.

ABSTRACT: In this study, we describe a method to reliably characterize intrahepatic leukocyte populations using flow cytometry and next-generation RNA sequencing on fresh human liver biopsies. Over the last decades, immune responses of viral hepatitis patients, and of other liver diseases, have been incompletely characterized. Most studies include peripheral blood samples only, foregoing the possibility to investigate the site of inflammation directly. Here, we show that with an optimized protocol that combines cell sorting and RNA sequencing, we can perform a side by side comparison of both intrahepatic and peripheral immune cells. Using core liver biopsies from chronic hepatitis B virus patients, we show that the expression levels of IFN-stimulated genes and leukocyte-specific genes are markedly d

SUBMITTER: Boeijen LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6924273 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature