A Hidradenitis Suppurativa Molecular Disease Signature Derived from Patient Samples by High-Throughput RNA Sequencing

Hidradenitis suppurativa is a common, debilitating inflammatory skin disease linked to immune dysregulation and abnormalities in follicular structure and function. Few studies have characterized the transcriptomic profile of affected and unaffected skin. We established an RNA-Seq based hidradenitis suppurativa expression disease signature and found it largely concordant with an earlier microarray-based study. We confirmed known aspects of the underlying disease biology including known immune response pathways, differential regulation of antimicrobial peptides, and complement activation. We further characterize the extent of changes in the complement cascade in hidradenitis lesions and highlight a signature that implicates host response to bacteria in disease pathogenesis. Patient-derived RNA from lesional and matching perilesional skin biopsies were used to identify an expression-based hidradenitis suppurativa disease signature.