Fibroblast subpopulations in Systemic Sclerosis – Functional implications of individual subpopulations and correlations with clinical features

Fibroblasts constitute a heterogeneous population of cells. Here, we integrated scRNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq data as well as clinical information to study the role of individual fibroblast populations in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). SSc skin demonstrated increased abundance of COMP+, COL11A1+, MYOC+, CCL19+, SFRP4/SFRP2+ and PRSS23/SFRP2+ fibroblasts signatures, and decreased proportions of CXCL12+ and PI16+ fibroblast signatures in the PRESS and GENISOS cohorts. Numerical differences were confirmed by multicolor immunofluorescence for selected fibroblast populations.

Source: Journal of Investigative Dermatology - December 23, 2023 Category: Dermatology Authors: Honglin Zhu, Hui Luo, Brian Skaug, Tracy Tabib, Yi-Nan Li, Yongguang Tao, Alexandru-Emil Matei, Marka A. Lyons, Georg Schett, Robert Lafyatis, Shervin Assassi, J örg H.W. Distler Tags: Original Article Source Type: research