Single-cell RNA-seq of mouse peripheral iNKT cells

Invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT) cells are differently distributed in various immune organs. However, it remains unclear whether iNKT cells exhibit phenotypical and functional differences in different peripheral organs and how thymic iNKT migrate to peripheral organs. Hence, characterizing iNKT cells in peripheral organs is important. We profiled the transcriptome patterns of individual mouse peripheral iNKT cells from liver, lymph node, and spleen using a droplet-based single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) approach.

恒定自然杀伤T细胞（invariant natural killer T cells, iNKT）在各类免疫器官中的分布存在差异。然而，目前尚不清楚iNKT细胞在不同外周器官中是否表现出表型与功能差异，也未明确胸腺内的iNKT细胞如何迁移至外周器官。因此，对外周器官中的iNKT细胞进行特征解析具有重要意义。我们采用基于微滴的单细胞RNA测序（droplet-based single-cell RNA-sequencing, scRNA-seq）方法，对来源于小鼠肝脏、淋巴结及脾脏的单个外周iNKT细胞的转录组表达模式进行了分析。