Myeloid cells and their progenitors have historically been characterized based on their expression of a well-defined set of surface proteins, transcription factors and cytokines they depend on. These traditional analyses on "bulk" myeloid cell populations led to valuable early insights into the ontogeny of dendritic cells, granulocytes, monocytes and macrophages - a process called myelopoiesis. However, bulk approaches have limitations: they are unable to discern the individual stages and functions of progenitors and may be compromised by contaminating cells of non-myeloid lineages with similar or overlapping phenotypes. In recent years the emergence of high dimensional technologies to interrogate single cells at the molecular level, including single-cell mRNA sequencing and mass cytometry, has revolutionised our understanding of immune cell development and differentiation. Here, we highlight how the use of single-cell technologies has advanced our understanding of myelopoiesis and the emerging opportunities for it to continue to do so.

中文翻译：

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使用单细胞技术更好地了解骨髓生成。


骨髓细胞及其祖细胞历来是根据它们所依赖的一组明确的表面蛋白、转录因子和细胞因子的表达来表征的。这些对“大量”骨髓细胞群的传统分析使我们对树突状细胞、粒细胞、单核细胞和巨噬细胞的个体发育（称为骨髓生成的过程）产生了有价值的早期见解。然而，批量方法有局限性：它们无法辨别祖细胞的各个阶段和功能，并且可能会因污染具有相似或重叠表型的非骨髓谱系细胞而受到损害。近年来，在分子水平上研究单细胞的高维技术的出现，包括单细胞 mRNA 测序和质谱流式细胞术，彻底改变了我们对免疫细胞发育和分化的理解。在这里，我们强调单细胞技术的使用如何增进了我们对骨髓生成的理解以及它继续这样做的新机会。