Need Help?

Single-cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics data for the sarcoidosis baseline project

Granulomas are lumps of immune cells that can form in various organs. Most granulomas appear unstructured, yet they have some resemblance to lymphoid organ formation. To better understand granuloma formation, we performed single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics on granulomas from patients with sarcoidosis and bioinformatically reconstructed the underlying gene-regulatory networks. We discovered an immune stimulatory environment in granulomas that repurposed transcriptional programs associated with lymphoid organ development. Granuloma formation followed characteristic spatial patterns and involved genes linked to immunometabolism, cytokine and chemokine signaling, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Three cell types emerged as key players in granuloma formation: metabolically reprogrammed macrophages, cytokine-producing Th17.1 cells, and fibroblasts with inflammatory and tissue remodeling phenotypes. Pharmacological inhibition of one of the identified processes attenuated granuloma formation in a sarcoidosis mouse model. We show that human granulomas adopt characteristic aspects of normal lymphoid organ development in aberrant combinations, indicating that granulomas constitute aberrant lymphoid organs.

Click on a Dataset ID in the table below to learn more, and to find out who to contact about access to these data

Dataset ID Description Technology Samples
EGAD00001010020 Illumina HiSeq 4000 Illumina NovaSeq 6000 41
Publications Citations
Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics reveal aberrant lymphoid developmental programs driving granuloma formation.
Immunity 56: 2023 289-306.e7
23