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Updated: Aug 22, 2025
Lymphocyte Isolation from Human Skin for Phenotypic Analysis and Ex Vivo Cell Culture
Published on: April 8, 2016
Single-cell transcriptome reveals immunopathological cell composition of skin lesions in subacute cutaneous lupus
Meiling Zheng1, Zhi Hu1, Wenhui Zhou1
1Department of Dermatology, Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, Changsha 410011, China; Research Unit of Key Technologies of Diagnosis and Treatment for Immune-related Skin Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Changsha 410011, China.
Abstract:
Subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE) is a clinical subtype of cutaneous lupus erythematosus with psoriatic-like or annular papules with scaly erythemas, the pathological mechanism of which is poorly understood. To investigate the immune pathogenesis of SCLE, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of SCLE skin lesions and integrated the scRNA-seq data from skin tissues of healthy controls (HCs). Our results identified expanded fibroblasts and keratinocytes subtypes, abnormally activated lymphocyte and inflammatory M1 macrophages in SCLE. In SCLE, stromal cells, such as keratinocytes and fibroblasts, showed enhanced chemotactic functions for recruiting immune cells. Importantly, interferon-related genes were identified as key intermediate genes in the potential trajectory of fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and B cells from HCs to SCLE. Our investigation provides a comprehensive description of cell composition in SCLE and highlights several important clues for understanding the pathogenesis of SCLE.
