Immune microenvironment and molecular mechanism of oral lichen planus [Single cell RNA-Seq]

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory disease with various clinical subtypes. Recurrent erosion of OLP brings great physical and mental pain to patients without clear pathogenesis. Herein, this study is the first to utilize single-cell RNA sequencing combined with spatial transcriptome and bulk RNA-seq to explore the tissual microenvironments of patients within normal oral mucosa, non-erosive OLP (ENOLP) and erosive OLP (EOLP). We utilized five OLP samples and one normal oral mucosa donated from a volunteer to perform scRNA-seq analysis to comprehensively and accurately characterize the tissue microenvironment between normal and OLP, to deeply explore the immune mechanism of OLP erosion. Next, we utilized two OLP samples to perform spatial transcriptome analysis to reconfirm the immune mechanism of OLP erosion combined with spatial location of cell types. Finally, we established a clinical cohort of 40 participants followed up for 1 year and performed RNA-seq with these 40 samples to support the above results.