Universal recording of immune cell interactions in vivo. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38448581/)

These scientists created a special method called uLIPSTIC to study how different types of cells in our body interact with each other. They used to have a method called LIPSTIC, but it could only study interactions between certain types of immune cells. With uLIPSTIC, they can now study interactions between all kinds of immune cells and even between immune cells and other types of cells in our body.

They used uLIPSTIC to watch how CD8(+) T cells are activated by dendritic cells, see which cells are always hanging out with regulatory T cells, and find specific cells that help B cells in the germinal center. By combining uLIPSTIC with single-cell transcriptomics, they made a list of all the different cells that interact with the cells in our intestines and tracked how CD8(+) T cells change their interactions in different organs after an infection.

In simple terms, these scientists made a cool tool called uLIPSTIC that helps them see how cells in our body talk to each other, which can help us learn more about how our immune system works in different situations.

Nakandakari-Higa S., Walker S., Canesso MCC., van der Heide V., Chudnovskiy A., Kim DY., Jacobsen JT., Parsa R., Bilanovic J., Parigi SM., Fiedorczuk K., Fuchs E., Bilate AM., Pasqual G., Mucida D., Kamphorst AO., Pritykin Y., Victora GD. Universal recording of immune cell interactions in vivo. Nature. 2024 Mar 6. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07134-4.