Spatial Map of Autoimmune Hepatitis, AIH
Profiling Molecular Mechanisms of Autoimmune Hepatitis in the POSULD Cohort
Mapped where immune cells and liver cells interact in autoimmune hepatitis, using spatial gene mapping and imaging of liver biopsies from a diverse San Francisco patient cohort.
Michele Tana, MD, MHS · Autoimmunity
Overview
Autoimmune hepatitis is an understudied chronic liver disease that disproportionately affects women and people of color. Building on the POSULD cohort at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and UCSF (about 300 participants, 60 with autoimmune hepatitis) and earlier work that pointed to a possible autoantigen (AFF3) and to B and T cell interactions through CD40, this seed project mapped liver biopsies from patients with autoimmune hepatitis and a comparison liver disease (MASLD). The team used spatial transcriptomics with a custom 480-gene liver panel and multiplexed immunofluorescence to see where AFF3-expressing liver cells and CD40/CD40L-expressing immune cells sit, and piloted single-cell profiling of matched blood samples.
The collection
- Collection model
- Investigator-led study
- Specimen types
- Liver biopsies (FFPE blocks and slides)PBMCs
- Assays and data types
- Spatial transcriptomics (Xenium)Multiplexed immunofluorescenceCITE-seq
- Participants
- POSULD participants with autoimmune hepatitis, with MASLD participants as comparison
- Disease areas
- Autoimmune hepatitis
People and partners
- Lead investigator
- Michele Tana, MD, MHS
- Department
- Medicine · Gastroenterology (ZSFG)
- Sites
- Zuckerberg San Francisco General; UCSF
- Collaborators
- Bruce Wang (co-PI); Cindy Ament (embedded researcher); Jennifer Price; Emily Perito; Heather Stevenson (University of Texas); ImmunoX CoLabs (Disease to Biology, Biological Imaging Development)