Uncovering systemic immunological modification by type 2 diabetes mellitus in periodontitis patients via single-cell RNA analysis

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex metabolic disorder and leads to various complications including periodontitis (PD). Though bidirectional relationship of DM and PD has been reported, however, their immunological relationship remain poorly understood. This study aims to compare the immune response in patients with PD only and those with both PD and DM (PDDM), in order to expand our knowledge of the complicated connections between PD and DM. We collected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from three distinct groups: 11 healthy control subjects, 10 patients with PD without DM, and 6 patients with PDDM. PBMCs were analyzed using single-cell RNA sequencing. Overall design: PBMCs from subjects were isolated and libraries for scRNA-seq were generated using the chromium controller according to the 10× chromium Next GEM Single Cell 3' v3.1 protocol. Cells are sequenced on Illumina HiSeq platform.