Tissue heterogeneity

Tissue heterogeneity refers to the fact that data generated with biological samples can be compromised by cells originating from other tissues or organs than the target tissue or organ of profiling.[1] It can be caused by biological processes (such as immune cell infiltration), sample contamination, or mistakes in sample labelling. Tissue heterogeneity affects commonly used, reference gene expression datasets such as the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (GTEx).[2]