Transcriptomics of Neonatal and Infant Human Thymus

Abstract

Genomic studies on human thymic development, growth, and involution are crucially demanded for understanding the processes of immunosenescence and inflammaging. Age-related thymus decline is mainly associated with adaptative immune system malfunction, leading to autoimmunity and ineffective responses to infections. Thymic explants obtained at cardiac surgery constitute an asset for transcriptomic studies of human thymus at critical stages of organ growth and initial decline. This chapter deals with the interpretation of whole thymic tissue transcriptomic datasets using modular transcriptional analysis techniques and integrative mRNA–miRNA–transcription factor (TF) co-expression analysis. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2014, 2022.