Systemic sclerosis & Raynaud's
Skin Biopsies Enhance Prediction of Clinical Trajectory in Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis
Authors' conclusion
Fibroblast immunophenotype varied by baseline disease duration and improved model performance for identifying those with improvement on MMF.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) enrolled in lenabasum, belimumab or nilotinib trials68 mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) users in model · belimumab 18 · or nilotinib 8
- Comparison
- Early vs later dcSSc
- Primary endpoint
- Clinical improvement: >5-point decrease in mRSS
- Follow-up
- 52 weeks
Methodological detailslenabasum, belimumab, nilotinib, multiple logistic regression (Akaike's information criterion-optimal), imaging mass cytometry in a representative sample
- Lenabasum, belimumab, nilotinib
- Multiple logistic regression (Akaike's information criterion-optimal)
- Imaging mass cytometry in a representative sample
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
- Despite similar baseline modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS), early disease associated with lower CD34, higher α-SMA, more B cells and greater mRSS improvement vs later SSc
- Among MMF users, high CD34 and α-SMA predicted improvement in early SSc; high α-SMA predicted lower odds of improvement in later SSc
- Probability of improvement lowest in early SSc with α-SMAlow/CD34low and later SSc with α-SMAhigh
Further findings
Fibroblast spatial organisation (imaging mass cytometry (IMC))
- CD34+ fibroblasts in superficial dermis; α-SMA+ fibroblasts in deeper, collagen-dense regions
B cells by α-SMA in later SSc
- B cells higher in α-SMAhigh vs α-SMAlow skin
Original publication
Skin Biopsies Enhance Prediction of Clinical Trajectory in Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis. Arthritis Rheumatol. Published 20 November 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →