Cardioimmunology is a field that encompasses the immune cells and pathways that modulate cardiac function in homeostasis and regulate the temporal balance between tissue injury and repair in disease. Over the past two decades, genetic fate mapping and high-dimensional sequencing techniques have defined increasing functional heterogeneity of innate and adaptive immune cell populations in the heart and other organs, revealing a complexity not previously appreciated and challenging established frameworks for the immune system. Given these rapid advances, understanding how to use these tools has become crucial. However, cardiovascular biologists without immunological expertise might not be aware of the strengths and caveats of immune-related tools and how they can be applied to examine the pathogenesis of myocardial diseases. In this Review, we guide readers through case-based examples to demonstrate how tool selection can affect data quality and interpretation and we provide critical analysis of the experimental tools that are currently available, focusing on their use in models of ischaemic heart injury and heart failure. The goal is to increase the use of relevant immunological tools and strategies among cardiovascular researchers to improve the precision, translatability and consistency of future studies of immune cells in cardiac disease.

心脏免疫学是一个涵盖免疫细胞和通路的领域，这些免疫细胞和通路在体内平衡中调节心脏功能，并调节组织损伤和疾病修复之间的时间平衡。在过去的二十年里，遗传命运图谱和高维测序技术已经确定了心脏和其他器官中先天性和适应性免疫细胞群的功能异质性不断增加，揭示了一种以前没有意识到的复杂性，并对免疫系统的既定框架提出了挑战。鉴于这些快速进步，了解如何使用这些工具变得至关重要。然而，没有免疫学专业知识的心血管生物学家可能不了解免疫相关工具的优势和注意事项，以及如何将它们应用于检查心肌疾病的发病机制。在这篇评论中，我们通过基于案例的示例引导读者展示工具选择如何影响数据质量和解释，并对当前可用的实验工具进行批判性分析，重点关注它们在缺血性心脏损伤和心力衰竭模型中的应用。目标是增加心血管研究人员对相关免疫学工具和策略的使用，以提高未来心脏病免疫细胞研究的准确性、可翻译性和一致性。