Modifications of histone proteins are fundamental to the regulation of epigenetic phenotypes. Dysregulations of histone modifications have been linked to the pathogenesis of diverse human diseases. However, identifying differential histone modifications in patients with immune-mediated diseases has been challenging, in part due to the lack of a powerful analytic platform to study histone modifications in the complex human immune system. We recently developed a highly multiplexed platform, Epigenetic landscape profiling using cytometry by Time-Of-Flight (EpiTOF), to analyze the global levels of a broad array of histone modifications in single cells using mass cytometry. In this review, we summarize the development of EpiTOF and discuss its potential applications in biomedical research. We anticipate that this platform will provide new insights into the roles of epigenetic regulation in hematopoiesis, immune cell functions, and immune system aging, and reveal aberrant epigenetic patterns associated with immune-mediated diseases.

组蛋白的修饰是表观遗传表型调节的基础。组蛋白修饰的失调与多种人类疾病的发病机制有关。然而，识别免疫介导疾病患者的差异组蛋白修饰一直具有挑战性，部分原因是缺乏强大的分析平台来研究复杂的人类免疫系统中的组蛋白修饰。我们最近开发了一个高度多路复用的平台，即通过飞行时间 (EpiTOF) 使用流式细胞仪进行表观遗传景观分析，以使用大规模流式细胞仪分析单个细胞中广泛的组蛋白修饰的整体水平。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 EpiTOF 的发展并讨论了它在生物医学研究中的潜在应用。