TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mueller, Sophie
AU  - Kroeger, Charlotte
AU  - Schultze, Joachim L
AU  - Aschenbrenner, Anna C
TI  - Whole blood stimulation as a tool for studying the human immune system.
JO  - European journal of immunology
VL  - 54
IS  - 2
SN  - 0014-2980
CY  - Weinheim
PB  - Wiley-VCH
M1  - DZNE-2024-00220
SP  - 2350519
PY  - 2024
AB  - 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.
KW  - Blood
KW  - Humans
KW  - Immune System
KW  - Whole blood ⋅ Ex vivo stimulation ⋅ Functional immune assay ⋅ Precision medicine (Other)
KW  - Whole blood ⋅ Ex vivo stimulation ⋅ Functional immune assay ⋅ Precision medicine (Other)
KW  - Whole blood ⋅ Ex vivo stimulation ⋅ Functional immune assay ⋅ Precision medicine (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:38103010
DO  - DOI:10.1002/eji.202350519
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/268468
ER  -