Defining Cutaneous Gene Expression Signatures in Juvenile Dermatomyositis

Skin inflammation in juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) can signal disease onset or flare up and prevent complete disease remission. Our objective was to evaluate JDM cutaneous expression signatures through tape stripping in both lesional and non-lesional skin and as compared to paired blood. A total of 28 JDM and 20 control (CTL) patients participated in the study. All patients had tape strip sampling of non-lesional (NL) skin at enrollment visit. Within our JDM cohort, paired lesional (L) skin was additionally sampled if rash was present. 16/28 of JDM patients had at least one additional skin sample associated with a follow-up (FU) visit (total number of follow-up samples included = 26 NL and 4 L). We identified a common innate immune signature in both lesional and non-lesional JDM skin. Using unsupervised hierarchical clustering of skin expression data, we distinguished a JDM molecular subgroup characterized by a mitochondrial dysfunction signature. In comparison to blood expression data, we determined that skin may more effectively highlight the JDM subgroup characterized by a mitochondrial dysfunction expression signature. Data available include bulk RNA-sequencing data from tape strips and blood of the JDM and control patients from this study.]]>
JDM patients had a confirmed diagnosis by a Pediatric Rheumatologist and met the 2017 EULAR/ACR classification criteria for JDM. Healthy controls had no active rash, infection, autoimmune or inflammatory disease.]]>