Dermal fibroblasts retain site-specific transcriptomic identity in keloids.

Background: Human skin displays extensive spatial heterogeneity and maintains distinct positional identity. However, the impact of disease processes on these site-specific differences remains poorly understood, especially in keloid, a skin disorder characterized by pronounced spatial heterogeneity.

Objective: This study aimed to assess whether the spatial heterogeneity and positional identity observed in different anatomic sites persist in keloids.

Transcriptomic Heterogeneity of Skin Across Different Anatomic Sites.

Multiomic studies, including RNA sequencing, single-cell RNA sequencing, and epigenomics, can provide insight into the connection between anatomically heterogeneous gene expression profile of the skin and dermatoses-predisposed sites, in which RNA sequencing is essential. Therefore, in this study, 159 skin samples collected mainly from discarded normal skin tissue during surgical treatment for benign skin tumors were used for RNA sequencing. On the basis of cluster analysis, the skin was divided into four regions, with each region showing specific physiological characteristics through differentially expressed gene analysis.