Single-cell analysis reveals key differences between early-stage and late-stage systemic sclerosis skin across autoantibody subgroups.

Objectives: The severity of skin involvement in diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) depends on stage of disease and differs between anti-RNA-polymerase III (ARA) and anti-topoisomerase antibody (ATA) subsets. We have investigated cellular differences in well-characterised dcSSc patients compared with healthy controls (HCs).

Methods: We performed single-cell RNA sequencing on 4 mm skin biopsy samples from 12 patients with dcSSc and HCs (n=3) using droplet-based sequencing (10× genomics).