中国医学科学院血液学研究所石莉红等研究人员合作利用单细胞转录组学分析发现并鉴定红细胞免疫调控亚群。2022年6月27日，《自然—免疫学》杂志在线发表了这项成果。

研究人员对来自人类卵黄囊、胎儿肝脏、早产儿脐带血（UCB）、足月UCB和成人骨髓（BM）的红细胞进行了综合的单细胞转录组研究，确定了具有不同分化轨迹的红细胞前体的经典和免疫亚群。在整个人类发育过程中，从卵黄囊到成人骨髓都存在免疫红细胞，但未能从人类胚胎干细胞体外生成。与经典红细胞前体相比，这些免疫红细胞拥有双重红细胞和免疫调节网络，显示出免疫调节功能，并更频繁地与各种先天和适应性免疫细胞相互作用。

这些发现为免疫红细胞的性质及其在发育和疾病期间的作用提供了重要的见解。

据介绍，非免疫细胞可以发挥免疫调节作用，促进健康发育。然而，人类发育过程中红细胞的免疫调节功能所依据的分子和细胞机制仍然难以确定。

附：英文原文

Title: Single-cell transcriptomic analysis identifies an immune-prone population in erythroid precursors during human ontogenesis

Author: Xu, Changlu, He, Jian, Wang, Hongtao, Zhang, Yingnan, Wu, Jing, Zhao, Lu, Li, Yue, Gao, Jie, Geng, Guangfeng, Wang, Bingrui, Chen, Xiaoyuan, Zheng, Zhaofeng, Shen, Biao, Zeng, Yang, Bai, Zhijie, Yang, Hua, Shi, Shujuan, Dong, Fang, Ma, Shihui, Jiang, Erlie, Cheng, Tao, Lan, Yu, Zhou, Jiaxi, Liu, Bing, Shi, Lihong

Issue&Volume: 2022-06-27

Abstract: Nonimmune cells can have immunomodulatory roles that contribute to healthy development. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the immunomodulatory functions of erythroid cells during human ontogenesis remain elusive. Here, integrated, single-cell transcriptomic studies of erythroid cells from the human yolk sac, fetal liver, preterm umbilical cord blood (UCB), term UCB and adult bone marrow (BM) identified classical and immune subsets of erythroid precursors with divergent differentiation trajectories. Immune-erythroid cells were present from the yolk sac to the adult BM throughout human ontogenesis but failed to be generated in vitro from human embryonic stem cells. Compared with classical-erythroid precursors, these immune-erythroid cells possessed dual erythroid and immune regulatory networks, showed immunomodulatory functions and interacted more frequently with various innate and adaptive immune cells. Our findings provide important insights into the nature of immune-erythroid cells and their roles during development and diseases. Shi and colleagues describe a subset of erythroid precursors with immune characteristics that can be isolated from the yolk sac to the adult bone marrow stages during human ontogenesis.

DOI: 10.1038/s41590-022-01245-8

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01245-8