TY - JOUR
T1 - Single-cell analysis reveals that stochasticity and paracrine signaling control interferon-alpha production by plasmacytoid dendritic cells
AU - Wimmers, Florian
AU - Subedi, Nikita
AU - van Buuringen, Nicole
AU - Heister, Daan
AU - Vivié, Judith
AU - Beeren-Reinieren, Inge
AU - Woestenenk, Rob
AU - Dolstra, Harry
AU - Piruska, Aigars
AU - Jacobs, Joannes F M
AU - van Oudenaarden, Alexander
AU - Figdor, Carl G
AU - Huck, Wilhelm T S
AU - de Vries, I Jolanda M
AU - Tel, Jurjen
PY - 2018/8/20
Y1 - 2018/8/20
N2 - Type I interferon (IFN) is a key driver of immunity to infections and cancer. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are uniquely equipped to produce large quantities of type I IFN but the mechanisms that control this process are poorly understood. Here we report on a droplet-based microfluidic platform to investigate type I IFN production in human pDCs at the single-cell level. We show that type I IFN but not TNFα production is limited to a small subpopulation of individually stimulated pDCs and controlled by stochastic gene regulation. Combining single-cell cytokine analysis with single-cell RNA-seq profiling reveals no evidence for a pre-existing subset of type I IFN-producing pDCs. By modulating the droplet microenvironment, we demonstrate that vigorous pDC population responses are driven by a type I IFN amplification loop. Our study highlights the significance of stochastic gene regulation and suggests strategies to dissect the characteristics of immune responses at the single-cell level.
AB - Type I interferon (IFN) is a key driver of immunity to infections and cancer. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are uniquely equipped to produce large quantities of type I IFN but the mechanisms that control this process are poorly understood. Here we report on a droplet-based microfluidic platform to investigate type I IFN production in human pDCs at the single-cell level. We show that type I IFN but not TNFα production is limited to a small subpopulation of individually stimulated pDCs and controlled by stochastic gene regulation. Combining single-cell cytokine analysis with single-cell RNA-seq profiling reveals no evidence for a pre-existing subset of type I IFN-producing pDCs. By modulating the droplet microenvironment, we demonstrate that vigorous pDC population responses are driven by a type I IFN amplification loop. Our study highlights the significance of stochastic gene regulation and suggests strategies to dissect the characteristics of immune responses at the single-cell level.
KW - Cellular Microenvironment
KW - Cross-Priming
KW - Dendritic Cells/metabolism
KW - Gene Expression Regulation
KW - Humans
KW - Interferon Type I/biosynthesis
KW - Jurkat Cells
KW - Paracrine Communication
KW - Sequence Analysis, RNA
KW - Single-Cell Analysis/methods
KW - Stochastic Processes
KW - Toll-Like Receptors/metabolism
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-05784-3
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-05784-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 30127440
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 9
SP - 3317
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
ER -