Single-cell catalogue of immune cells from Japanese individuals

Gene expression in immune cells varies greatly among healthy individuals and may be influenced by the genetic background, age and other factors. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying immune diversity at the single-cell level are not well understood. Here, we generate a single-cell multi-omics dataset of peripheral blood from 105 Japanese individuals. We focus on age-related changes in cellular populations and gene expression levels. In our dataset, age-associated population changes are most pronounced in naïve T cells, memory B cells, and CD56bright NK cells, which are associated with the initial immune responses of the respective cell lineages. Conversely, monocytes display prominent epigenomic changes that often precede those in the transcriptome, particularly among immune response genes. This dataset, which represents an underrepresented Japanese population in single-cell research, provides an invaluable resource for future studies.