Single cell RNA-sequencing analysis of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) skin lesions

The goal of the study is to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for cutaneous GVHD. Overall design: Skin punch biopsies were collected from adult hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients suffering from chronic GVHD in accordance to an IRB protocol approved by Duke University and with patient consent. Surgical abdominoplasty skin tissues were used for control. The epidermis was separated from the dermis via dispase digestion. Single cell suspensions of the epidermis and the dermis were loaded onto the 10x genomics system for bar coding and cDNA library construction followed by RNA-sequencing.