039 Single-cell RNA-sequencing captures the cellular diversity within lesional and non-lesional skin of patients with dermatomyositis

Abstract

Dermatomyositis (DM) is a devastating and poorly understood autoimmune disease characterized by prominent muscle weakness and relapsing refractory skin rashes. To investigate the cellular composition and comprehensive transcriptional effects of DM, we analyzed lesional and sun-protected, non-lesional skin from 8 patients with active cutaneous DM using scRNA-seq. Samples were analyzed in parallel with skin from 8 sex-matched healthy controls. Clustering and annotation revealed 12 major cell types, with prominent disease-associated shifts observed in both stromal and immune cell populations in DM skin.