Single cell and spatial transcriptomic profiling of Haemophilus ducreyi infection

We investigated the immune response in end-point pustules formed by Haemophilus ducreyi in volunteers using an experimental infection model. Six volunteers were infected in the skin of the upper arm at three sites with 41-85 CFU of H. ducreyi loaded on an allergy testing device; a sham-inoculated (e.g., wound) site was also performed. Five volunteers (4 men and 1 woman; 2 Asians and 3 Whites; aged 27-46 years) formed pustules 6-8 days post infection; 1 volunteer spontaneously resolved all sites. If a volunteer formed pustules, biopsies were performed to collect their pustule and wound sites. Biopsy pairs for all 5 pustule formers were subjected to single cell (sc) RNA-seq. Sequencing libraries were prepared using the 10X Genomics Single-cell 3' RNA-seq kit. Spatial transcriptomics was... (for more see dbGaP study page.)