Single Cell Transcriptomic Landscape of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a devastating complication of diabetes. In order to identify systemic and local factors associated with DFU healing, we examined the cellular landscape of DFUs by single-cell RNA-seq analysis of foot and forearm skin specimens, as well as PBMC samples, from 10 non-diabetic subjects, and 17 diabetic patients, 11 with, and 6 without DFU. Our analysis shows enrichment of a unique inflammatory fibroblast population in DFU patients with healing wounds. The patients with healing DFUs also depicted enrichment of macrophages with M1 polarization, as opposed to more M2 macrophages in non-healing wounds. These findings were verified using Immunohistochemistry and Spatial Transcriptomics. Single-cell RNA sequencing of foot and forearm skin cells, as well as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), from 10 samples from non-diabetic subjects, and 17 diabetic patients, 11 with, and 6 without DFU. ***Raw data not available due to patient privacy concerns***