Spatio-temporal immune zonation of the human kidney

Tissue-resident immune cells are important for organ homeostasis and defense. The epithelium may contribute to these functions directly, or via crosstalk with immune cells. We resolved the spatio-temporal immune topology of the human kidney with a scRNAseq dataset from 40,268 mature and 27,203 fetal kidney cells. Within the epithelial compartment there were zonated patterns of immune gene expression, with pelvic epithelial anti-microbial peptide expression in mature but not fetal kidneys. Tissue-resident immune cells were evident in both fetal and mature kidney, with post-natal acquisition of infection-defense capabilities. Epithelial-immune signalling orchestrated localization of macrophages and neutrophils to regions of the kidney susceptible to infection.