Advances in Human B Cell Phenotypic Profiling

The heterogeneity in the healthy human immune system, and the immunological changes that portend various diseases, have been only partially described. Their comprehensive elucidation has been termed the 'Human Immunology Project'. The accurate measurement of variations in the human immune system requires precise and standardized assays to distinguish true biological changes from technical artefacts. Thus, to be successful, the Human Immunology Project will require standardized assays for immunophenotyping humans in health and disease. A major tool in this effort is flow cytometry, which remains highly variable with regard to sample handling, reagents, instrument setup and data analysis. In this Review, we outline the current state of standardization of flow cytometry assays and summarize the steps that are required to enable the Human Immunology Project.

Multiparametric single-cell analysis is critical for understanding cellular heterogeneity. Despite recent technological advances in single-cell measurements, methods for analyzing high-dimensional single-cell data are often subjective, labor intensive and require prior knowledge of the biological system under investigation. To objectively uncover cellular heterogeneity from single-cell measurements, we present a novel computational approach, Spanning-tree Progression Analysis of Density-normalized Events (SPADE). We applied SPADE to cytometry data of mouse and human bone marrow. In both cases, SPADE organized cells in a hierarchy of related phenotypes that partially recapitulated well-described patterns of hematopoiesis. In addition, SPADE produced a map of intracellular signal activation across the landscape of human hematopoietic development. SPADE revealed a functionally distinct cell population, natural killer (NK) cells, without using any NK-specific parameters. SPADE is a versatile method that facilitates the analysis of cellular heterogeneity, the identification of cell types, and comparison of functional markers in response to perturbations.

Conventional models suggest that long-term antibody responses are maintained by the continuous differentiation of memory B cells into antibody-secreting plasma cells. This is based on the notion that plasma cells are short-lived and need to be continually replenished by memory B cells. We examined the issue of plasma cell longevity by following the persistence of LCMV-specific antibody and plasma cell numbers after in vivo depletion of memory B cells and by adoptive transfer of virus-specific plasma cells into naive mice. The results show that a substantial fraction of plasma cells can survive and continue to secrete antibody for extended periods of time (>1 year) in the absence of any detectable memory B cells. This study documents the existence of long-lived plasma cells and demonstrates a new mechanism by which humoral immunity is maintained.