Gene expression from human keratinocytes isolated from limited systemic sclerosis (lcSSc) and diffuse systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) skin biopsy

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare but devastating disease of fibrosis impacting the dermis and multiple organ systems. The prevalence ranges from 4 to 489 cases per million individuals with ten year mortality rates reported around 18 percent. Survival is related to the extent of skin involvement, yet the precise mechanisms driving skin fibrosis in SSc remain unknown. In this study, we analyzed the shared and unique transcriptomic profiles of SSc and normal keratinocytes. RNA from keratinocytes isolated and grown to passage 2 from human skin biopsies was extracted and processed for hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.