Distinct gene network in skin lesion of patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis

Excerpt

Diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by fibrosis and high morbidity and mortality. Progression of skin lesion is associated with subsequent progression of visceral organ lesion and high mortality, suggesting critical disorder may be shared among various lesions [1]. Thus, skin biopsy has been conducted to explore the key molecule in the pathogenesis of dcSSc in situ. Recent studies revealed that fibro-inflammatory pathways were dysregulated in skin lesion by transcriptome profiling [2, 3]. However, these results were based on expression levels of single molecules. To understand the pathogenesis of dcSSc correctly, remaining challenges include how to best identify genes of interest from large datasets. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) is a system biology method and widely used for finding gene clusters (modules) of highly correlated genes by summarizing such clusters using the module eigengene [4]. Correlation networks facilitate network-based gene screening that can be used to identify candidate biomarkers or therapeutic targets. …