(141) Building Clustering Consensus and Exploring the Immune Landscape in Mouse Spleen in Single-Cell Resolution

Introduction/Rationale: The spleen is the largest organ for filtering blood and plays a crucial role in the
adaptive immune system.
The spleen is the largest organ for filtering blood and plays a crucial role
in the adaptive immune system. Numerous studies examined various cellular
populations of the spleen especially in cancer immunological studies, however,
often with a focusing on one particular cell type like T or B cells. Studies that
comprehensively characterize the full cellular landscape of the spleen including
erythrocytes - which are often removed - remain uncommon.

Methods: his study aims to build a comprehensive transcriptomic atlas of the spleen
and characterize key processes at a single-cell resolution. We will employ single-
cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), a state-of-the-art technique for exploring the
cellular landscape and composition of complex organs. The scRNA-seq analysis,
coupled with trajectory inference and ligand–receptor interaction studies, will
reveal the detailed immune landscape of the spleen and identify critical genes
involved in its activation.

Results: To ensure high granularity and accuracy in cell-type identification, we employed a novel computational strategy that integrates Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) and Shared Nearest Neighbor (SNN)–based clustering approaches that achieve superior results to applying these approaches individually. Additionally, we developed a new computational approach for building clustering consensus and validating cell type identification methods.

Conclusion: This integrated framework not only enhances the precision of cell-type classification but also provide new insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the spleen.