Quantitative immune profiling of human tumor tissues with multiplexed ChipCytometry

Abstract

Abstract Objective Many immune cell profiling methods have demonstrated limits on the number of biomarkers that can be reliably assayed from the same cell; to remedy this, we present here ChipCytometry, an imaging technology for quantitative immune profiling of cells and sectioned tissues. Methods ChipCytometry is a fluorescence-based imaging system that utilizes multiplexed immuno-fluorescence staining in combination with high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging to facilitate quantitative phenotyping of individual cells within tissue samples. Employing this technology to profile metastatic and primary tumors, multiple biomarkers were stained in iterative multiplex assays to profile single cells with an AI-powered cell segmentation algorithm. This immune profiling was completed on 6 different cryosectioned human tumor tissues (head & neck, liver, lung, breast, colon, and pancreas). Results ChipCytometry allowed for the quantification of both tumor and immune cells in all 6 of the human tumor tissues that were analyzed, revealing the diversity of T cells (helper, cytotoxic, regulatory, naïve/effector/memory), B-cells, granulocytes, monocytes, dendritic cells, and natural killer cells present in the tumor microenvironment. The resolution, dynamic range, and AI-powered cell segmentation offered by ChipCytometry allowed for quantification of 15 immune cell types at the single-cell level. The data show exact counts of each specific cell type, relative percentages within each tissue, and the precise spatial distribution of each cell. Conclusion These results demonstrate the potential of ChipCytometry to broadly probe a diverse set of human tumor tissue types and acquire a deep immunological cell type profile.