Skin gene expression correlates of severity of interstitial lung disease in systemic sclerosis

We identified eighty two skin transcripts significantly correlated with the severity of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in systemic sclerosis. These genes separated patients with more sever ILD in unsupervised hierarchical clustering. Pathway analysis revealed pathways involved in extravasation and adhesion of inflammatory cells to endothelium. Skin biopsy samples from 59 patients enrolled in the GENISOS cohort or an open label imatinib study were examined by global gene expression studies.