Advanced imaging of immune cells for human kidney disease

Abstract Immune cells mediate acute and chronic renal failure in native and transplanted kidneys, initiating auto- and allo-immunity, and acting as effectors in other diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Many drugs already in use or in development for these diseases target the putative immune mechanisms at play, based on in vitro cell experiments and animal models. Here, we review how recent and upcoming advanced tissue imaging techniques—many of them applicable to human kidney samples as well as animal models—could further improve drug development by providing insights into immune cell types, activation states, and behaviours in kidney disease. We illustrate an innovative cross-scale multimodal imaging pipeline and its application to the investigation of immune cells in human kidney samples.