Commonly Occurring Cell Subsets in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Tumors Identified by Single-Cell Mass Cytometry.

We have performed an in-depth single-cell phenotypic characterization of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) by multiparametric mass cytometry (CyTOF). Using a CyTOF antibody panel to interrogate features of HGSOC biology, combined with unsupervised computational analysis, we identified noteworthy cell types co-occurring across the tumors. In addition to a dominant cell subset, each tumor harbored rarer cell phenotypes.

Single-cell systems-level analysis of human Toll-like receptor activation defines a chemokine signature in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Background: Activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) induces inflammatory responses involved in immunity to pathogens and autoimmune pathogenesis, such as in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Although TLRs are differentially expressed across the immune system, a comprehensive analysis of how multiple immune cell subsets respond in a system-wide manner has not been described.

Objective: We sought to characterize TLR activation across multiple immune cell subsets and subjects, with the goal of establishing a reference framework against which to compare pathologic processes.

Multiplexed mass cytometry profiling of cellular states perturbed by small-molecule regulators.

Mass cytometry facilitates high-dimensional, quantitative analysis of the effects of bioactive molecules on human samples at single-cell resolution, but instruments process only one sample at a time. Here we describe mass-tag cellular barcoding (MCB), which increases mass cytometry throughput by using n metal ion tags to multiplex up to 2n samples. We used seven tags to multiplex an entire 96-well plate, and applied MCB to characterize human peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) signaling dynamics and cell-to-cell communication, signaling variability between PBMCs from eight human donors, and the effects of 27 inhibitors on this system.