Uncovering the cellular heterogeneity and origin of neutrophils at the onset of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) by single-cell RNA-seq

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is the main cause of morbidity and mortality after allo-HSCT, which is determined by interactions between innate and adaptive immune system. We used single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to construct transcriptional profile of immune cells in peripheral blood from patients with or without acute GVHD. Overall design: All patients enrolled were adult recipients who underwent haploidentical HSCT for acute leukemia and achieved stable engraftment. Peripheral blood was sampled from 4 patients at the time of the first flare-up episode of acute GVHD (Glucksberg grade II) without initiation of any treatment for GVHD (range: 20-31 days after transplantation). The non-GVHD controls (n = 2) were sampled at similar time point (28 days) after HSCT.The collected CD45+ pertpheral blood cells were ananlyzed using scRNA-seq.