Deciphering Spatial Transcriptomic Signatures Reveals Insights into Perifascicular Atrophy in Dermatomyositis

Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease that primarily affects the skin and muscles. Perifascicular atrophy is a characteristic feature of dermatomyositis, yet its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Hereby we conducted spatial transcriptomics to study the changes in the RNA expression in the muscle fibers with perifascicular atrophy from patients with juvenile and adult dermatomyositis, compared with muscles with non-atrophic areas. Our findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying perifascicular atrophy and highlight potential pathways for future investigation. We used the muscles of 1 patient with juvenile dermatomyositis and 1 patient with adult dermatomyositis. Both patients had perifascicular atrophy. The gene expression in the frozen section of muscles from both patients were tested with spatial transcriptomics.