Single-cell metabolite profiling enables information-rich classification of lymphocyte types and subtypes.

ABSTRACT

Lymphocytes play crucial roles in the human immune system; however, detailed metabolite characteristics need to be further investigated. Herein, we propose a lymphocyte classification method based on metabolite profiling at the single-cell level. The percentages of different lymphocyte types were calculated with a low margin of error, confirming that the metabolites could serve as a basis for lymphocyte classification. Furthermore, we analyzed the CD4/CD8 ratio in human peripheral blood to verify the feasibility of this method for the classification of lymphocyte subtypes. The proposed method is expected to be a potential tool for the clinical diagnosis of lymphocyte-related diseases.