Whole blood stimulation as a tool for studying the human immune system

The human immune system is best accessible via tissues and organs not requiring major surgical intervention, such as blood. In many circumstances, circulating immune cells correlate with an individual's health state and give insight into physiological and pathophysiological processes. Stimulating whole blood ex vivo is a powerful tool to investigate immune responses. In the context of clinical research, the applications of whole blood stimulation include host immunity, disease characterization, diagnosis, treatment, and drug development. Here, we summarize different setups and readouts of whole blood assays and discuss applications for preclinical research and clinical practice. Finally, we propose combining whole blood stimulation with high-throughput technologies, such as single-cell RNA-sequencing, to comprehensively analyze the human immune system for the identification of biomarkers, therapeutic interventions as well as companion diagnostics. Ex vivo stimulation of whole blood gives insight into the function of the human immune system under physiological conditions and during diseases. Whole blood stimulation assays and their read-outs can be tailored depending on the research question making them widely applicable in basic, preclinical, and clinical research.#image

Automated summary

Blood, as a non-invasive way to access the human immune system, is an important tool for studying physiological and pathophysiological processes. Stimulating whole blood ex vivo allows for investigation of immune responses and has applications in clinical research such as host immunity, disease characterization, and drug development.