CITEseq of lymphocytes from pancreatic lymph nodes, mesenteric lymph nodes, and spleen from 17 Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP) donors
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is caused by the autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells, leading to life-long dependence on exogenous insulin. Profiling immune cells that infiltrate islets would be invaluable to understanding how beta cell destruction occurs. However, human pancreatic samples demonstrating active infiltration and beta cell destruction are rare. Alternatively, peri-pancreatic lymph nodes (pLNs) or other secondary lymphoid organs may harbor immune cells which participate in memory responses that drive T1D autoimmunity. To study the immune response throughout T1D onset and disease, lymphocytes from pLNs, mesenteric lymph nodes (mesLNs), and the spleen were collected from human T1D, auto-antibody positive (AAb+), and normal donors (NDs) enrolled in the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP). Tissue immune cell identity, phenotype, and transcriptional status was analyzed using Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes by Sequencing (CITEseq). Lymphocytes from 17 pLN, 9 mesLN, and 15 spleen samples spanning 7 ND, 5 AAb+, and 7 T1D donors were thawed and processed through the CITEseq pipeline. 5 donors per disease group had a paired pLN and spleen sample, with 3 of the 5 donors having a paired mesLN sample, allowing for cross-tissue immune status comparison spanning multiple stages of disease onset. The dataset provides one of the first and largest CITEseq datasets on human AAb+ and T1D samples publicly available. Overall design: All samples are human secondary lymphoid tissue mononuclear cells  acquired through the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (HPAP). The samples are derived from thawed mononuclear cells purified from either pancreatic lymph nodes (pLN), mesenteric lymph nodes (mesLNs), or the spleen. Samples from 7 normal (ND), 5 auto-antibody positive (AAb+), and 7 type 1 diabetic (T1D) donors are included in the dataset. All donors have 1 pLN sample, while 5 donors per group have a paired spleen sample. 3 of the 5 donors per group also have a paired mesLN sample. There are 45 total samples.