Single-cell and spatial architecture of human tissue granulomas reveals an aberrant immune-regulatory program underlying sarcoidosis [spatial transcriptomics data]
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ABSTRACT: Purpose: Granulomas are lumps of immune cells that can form in various organs, causing chronic inflammation and tissue destruction. While most granulomas appear histologically heterogeneous and unstructured, they have a certain resemblance of lymphoid organ formation. We thus pursued the hypothesis that granuloma formation is a highly orchestrated process that mixes and repurposes various regulatory mechanisms of normal development Methods: We performed single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics on granulomas from patients diagnosed with cutaneous sarcoidosis, and we bioinformatically reconstructed their gene-regulatory networks and cell-cell interactions Results: We observed regulatory processes underlying granuloma formation that were highly conserved across individuals and followed characteristic spatial patterns. We identified metabolically reprogrammed macrophages, various T cells subsets and structural cells including fibroblasts and endothelial cells as key players in granulomas. Specifically, exhausted interferon-gamma-producing Th17.1 cells with cytotoxic potential and inflammatory fibroblasts were identified as drivers of granuloma formation by attracting various immune cell types. Summary: we found that granuloma formation in sarcoidosis is a molecular and cellular process that adopts specific aspects of normal lymphoid organ development in aberrant combinations. Our study frames human granuloma formation as a developmental pathology and raises the future perspective of therapeutic targeting of granuloma-specific regulatory programs.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE192460 | GEO | 2023/02/07
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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