Asian diversity in human immune cells

The relationships of human diversity with biomedical phenotypes are pervasive yet remain understudied, particularly in a single-cell genomics context. Here, we present the Asian Immune Diversity Atlas (AIDA), a multi-national single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) healthy reference atlas of human immune cells. AIDA comprises 1,265,624 circulating immune cells from 619 donors, spanning 7 population groups across 5 Asian countries, and 6 controls. Though population groups are frequently compared at the continental level, we found that sub-continental diversity, age, and sex pervasively impacted cellular and molecular properties of immune cells. These included differential abundance of cell neighborhoods as well as cell populations and genes relevant to disease risk, pathogenesis, and diagnostics. We discovered functional genetic variants influencing cell-type-specific gene expression, which were under-represented in non-Asian populations, and helped contextualize disease-associated variants. AIDA enables analyses of multi-ancestry disease datasets and facilitates the development of precision medicine efforts in Asia and beyond.

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Publication Details

Journal
Cell
Published
2025-03-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.02.017
Citations
41
Primary Topic
Immune Cell Function and Interaction
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
32.70
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article

Asian diversity in human immune cells

Murim Choi, Manop Pithukpakorn, Woong‐Yang Park, Keiko Myouzen et al.
41 citations
Cell
Immune Cell Function and Interaction
32.70
article

Asian diversity in human immune cells

Murim Choi, Manop Pithukpakorn, Woong‐Yang Park, Keiko Myouzen, Juthamard Chantaraamporn, Kian Hong Kock, Akari Suzuki, Ponpan Matangkasombut, Chi Tian, Nirmala Arul Rayan, Fred A. Wright, Prasanna Nori Venkatesh, Gyo Inoue, Chung-Chau Hon, John C. Chambers, Shyam Prabhakar, Jin‐Mi Oh, Ziyue Chen, Anis Larbi, Le Min Tan, Marie Chiew Shia Loh, Jonathan Moody, Yukinori Okada, Hong‐Hee Won, Mi-So Park, Supratim Ghosh, Bhoom Suktitipat, Yuntian Zhang, Alexandra–Chloé Villani, Miki Kojima, Yoshinari Ando, Boxiang Liu, Yoshihiko Tomofuji, A. Chatterjee, Kazuyoshi Ishigaki, Sarintip Nguantad, Roger Ho, You Yi Hwang, Partha P. Majumder, Varodom Charoensawan, Deepa Rajagopalan, Quy Xiao Xuan Lin, Piero Carninci, Tze Pin Ng, Jinyeong Lim, Arindam Maitra, Yihan Tong, Anteneh Mehari Tizazu, Eliora Violain Buyamin, Radhika Sonthalia, Narita Thungsatianpun, Damita Jevapatarakul, Jong-Eun Park, Sumanta Sarkar, Crystal Tze Ying Tan, Masahiro Nakano, Shvetha Sankaran, Seiko Furukawa, Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Tsukasa Kouno, Jay W. Shin, Mai Abe, Kyung Yeon Han
article en
41 citations

Abstract

The relationships of human diversity with biomedical phenotypes are pervasive yet remain understudied, particularly in a single-cell genomics context. Here, we present the Asian Immune Diversity Atlas (AIDA), a multi-national single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) healthy reference atlas of human immune cells. AIDA comprises 1,265,624 circulating immune cells from 619 donors, spanning 7 population groups across 5 Asian countries, and 6 controls. Though population groups are frequently compared at the continental level, we found that sub-continental diversity, age, and sex pervasively impacted cellular and molecular properties of immune cells. These included differential abundance of cell neighborhoods as well as cell populations and genes relevant to disease risk, pathogenesis, and diagnostics. We discovered functional genetic variants influencing cell-type-specific gene expression, which were under-represented in non-Asian populations, and helped contextualize disease-associated variants. AIDA enables analyses of multi-ancestry disease datasets and facilitates the development of precision medicine efforts in Asia and beyond.

CellVol. 188(8)
Hiroshima University (JP), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG), Siriraj Hospital (TH), North Carolina State University (US), Seoul National University (KR), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR), National University of Singapore (SG), Singapore Institute of Technology (SG), Nanyang Technological University (SG), Mahidol University (TH), Singapore Immunology Network (SG), Samsung Medical Center (KR), Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (SG), Human Technopole (IT), Center for Cancer Research (US), Usha Martin (India) (IN), RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (JP), Geriatric Education and Research Institute (SG), National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (IN), Indian Statistical Institute (IN), Genome Institute of Singapore (SG), The University of Osaka (JP)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Immune Cell Function and Interaction
32.70
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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