Single-cell profiling of immune system alterations in lymphoid, barrier and solid tissues in aged mice

Aging exerts profound and paradoxical effects on the immune system, at once impairing proliferation, cytotoxicity and phagocytosis, and inducing chronic inflammation. Previous studies have focused on individual tissues or cell types, while a comprehensive multisystem study of tissue-resident and circulating immune populations during aging is lacking. Here we reveal an atlas of age-related changes in the abundance and phenotype of immune cell populations across 12 mouse tissues. Using cytometry-based high parametric analysis of 37 mass-cytometry and 55 spectral flow-cytometry parameters, mapping samples from young and aged animals revealed conserved and tissue-type-specific patterns of both immune atrophy and expansion. We uncovered clear phenotypic changes in both lymphoid and myeloid lineages in aged mice, and in particular a contraction in natural killer cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells. These changes correlated with a skewing towards myelopoiesis at the expense of early lymphocyte genesis in aged mice. Taken together, this atlas represents a comprehensive, systematic and thorough resource of the age-dependent alterations of the mammalian immune system in lymphoid, barrier and solid tissues. With aging, the immune system undergoes severe changes that impact health in numerous ways. For a comprehensive, translational analysis of these alterations, Krishnarajah et al. here provide profiling of immune cell populations across 12 tissues from young and old mice.