A novel multi-network approach reveals tissue-specific cellular modulators of fibrosis in systemic sclerosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multi-organ autoimmune disease characterized by skin fibrosis. Internal organ involvement is heterogeneous. It is unknown whether disease mechanisms are common across all involved affected tissues or if each manifestation has a distinct underlying pathology.

Methods

We used consensus clustering to compare gene expression profiles of biopsies from four SSc-affected tissues (skin, lung, esophagus, and peripheral blood) from patients with SSc, and the related conditions pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and pulmonary arterial hypertension, and derived a consensus disease-associate signature across all tissues. We used this signature to query tissue-specific functional genomic networks. We performed novel network analyses to contrast the skin and l

SUBMITTER: Taroni JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5363043 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature