Spatial transcriptomics stratifies psoriatic disease by emergent cellular ecosystems

The skin is recognized as a window into the immunopathogenic mechanisms driving the vast phenotypic spectrum of psoriatic disease. To better decipher the cellular landscape of both healthy and psoriatic skin, we employed spatial transcriptomics (ST), a ground-breaking technology that precisely maps gene expression from histologically-intact tissue sections. Findings gleaned from computationally integrating our 23 matched lesional and non-lesional psoriatic and 7 healthy control samples with publicly-available single cell RNA seq data sets provided insights into the emergent cellular ecosystems at play in psoriatic disease. Overall design: This is a cross-sectional study involving the accrual of 3-4-mm skin punch biopsy samples from healthy controls and biologic naïve patients with psoriatic disease. The samples were then subjected to the protocols entailed by spatial transcriptomics platform.