Spatial Transcriptomics of MHC Expression in Mauritian Cynomolgus Macaque Tissues

Previous scRNA sequencing studies with these macaque demonstrated a wide range of allele-specific MHC transcript levels in multiple peripheral blood mononuclear cell subsets. The restricted genetic diversity of the Mauritian macaque population made it possible to design a manageable number of custom MHC probes for this pilot study .

Tissues examined included kidney, liver, lung and heart that of particular interest for transplant research. The Visium Human Transcriptome Kit v2 performed well with at least 40 different kidney cell types identified based on cell clustering with gene expression definitions in a human kidney cell atlas. In addition, higher overall transcript levels were observed for several major MHC class I alleles compared to minor alleles that tend to be expressed at low levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.