Spatial transcriptomic data for skin tissue of systemic sclerosis or localized scleroderma

However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying juvenile scleroderma remain poorly understood. To investigate disease pathogenesis, we applied Visium CytAssist spatial transcriptomics (ST), which preserves tissue architecture while enabling whole-transcriptome profiling, to skin lesions from pediatric patients with LS and SSc.

Spatial domains identified from ST data showed strong concordance with pathologist-defined anatomical structures. Integration of paired ST and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from the same patients validated the biological consistency of both platforms and enabled estimation of cell-type composition within spatial domains. Moreover, ST analysis accurately delineated pathologist-annotated immune infiltrates, including perivascular inflammatory regions, highlighting the biological relevance of the spatial transcriptomic findings.