Antisense long non-coding RNAs are deregulated in skin tissue of patients with systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by fibrosis of skin and multiple organs of which the pathogenesis is poorly understood. Here we studied differentially expressed coding and non-coding genes in relation to SSc pathogenesis with a specific focus on antisense non-coding RNAs. Skin biopsy-derived RNAs from fourteen early SSc patients and six healthy individuals were sequenced with ion-torrent and analysed using DEseq2. Overall, 4901 genes with a fold change >1.5 and a false discovery rate < 5% were detected in patients versus controls. Upregulated genes clustered in immunological, cell adhesion and keratin-related processes. Interestingly, 676 deregulated non-coding genes were detected, 257 of which were classified as antisense genes. Sense genes expressed opposite of these antisense genes were also deregulated in 42% of the observed sense-antisense gene pairs. The majority of the antisense genes had a similar effect sizes in an independent North American dataset with three genes (CTBP1-AS2, OTUD6B-AS1 and AGAP2-AS1) exceeding the study-wide Bonferroni-corrected ρ-value (PBonf<0.0023, Pcombined = 1.1x10-9, 1.4x10-8, 1.7x10-6, respectively). In this study, we highlight that together with coding genes, (antisense) long non-coding RNAs are deregulated in skin tissue of SSc patients suggesting a novel class of genes involved in pathogenesis of SSc.

Type: Other
Archiver: European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA)

1 Dataset 1 Publication

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Dataset ID	Description	Technology	Samples
EGAD00001003832	Patient information SSc patients were recruited at the Department of Rheumatology of the Leiden University Medical Center (Leiden, The Netherlands). All patients met the American Rheumatism Association classification criteria for SSc (Subcommittee for scleroderma criteria 1980), and were classified according to LeRoy and Medsger criteria as either limited or diffuse cutaneous disease (LeRoy EC, Black C, Fleischmajer R, Jablonska S, Krieg T, Medsger TA Jr, Rowell N 1988). Institutional review board approval and written informed consent was obtained before patients entered this study. Two 4 mm skin biopsies were taken from a standardized location on the most proximal part of the lower arm, distal from the elbow. In 10 patients the skin biopsy came from a clinically affected area and in 4 patients the skin was locally unaffected. One sample was used for RNA sequencing and one sample was used for immunohistochemistry. Skin biopsies from healthy individuals were commercially sourced (Tissue Solutions, UK) and collected from donors undergoing skin resection surgery and after informed consent. To match the healthy skin with patients as much as possible, skin biopsies from healthy controls were also taken from a similar position (the under-arm (for 4 controls) and leg (for 2 controls)). Healthy skin donors were selected to match the age and sex of the SSc patient cohort. Biopsies from patients and controls were equally treated and were both stored at -80°C until RNA isolation was performed. RNA from frozen skin biopsies was isolated using RNeasy kit from fibrous tissue (Qiagen, the Netherlands). RNA quantity was determined by using SimplyNano 2000 and quality was assessed on Tapestation (Agilent, the Netherlands). All samples included in the study had a RIN score above 7.0. Transcriptome characterisation and analysis RNA sequencing was performed using polyA selection and a stranded protocol using Ion Torrent next generation sequencing technology (Service XS, The Netherlands). The Ion PI Template OT2 200 Kit v3 and Ion PI Sequencing 200 Kit v3 were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 20 samples were run on 11 PI chips. PI chip analyses, base calling and quality checks were performed using the Torrent Server Suite. An average of 42 million 100 bp reads was generated per sample. Following quality control, reads were aligned to the human genome (Homo sapiens GRh38.78) using Bowtie2 and STAR (Dobin et al. 2013; Langmead and Salzberg 2012). Reads were first aligned with STAR. For the unmapped reads from STAR, a second alignment step was performed using bowtie2 (local very sensitive options)	Ion Torrent Proton	20

Publications	Citations
Antisense Long Non-Coding RNAs Are Deregulated in Skin Tissue of Patients with Systemic Sclerosis. Messemaker TC, Chadli L, Cai G, Goelela VS, Boonstra M, Dorjée AL, Andersen SN, Mikkers HMM, van 't Hof P, Mei H, Distler O, Draisma HHM, Johnson ME, Orzechowski NM, Simms RW, Toes REM, Aarbiou J, Huizinga TW, Whitfield ML, DeGroot J, de Vries-Bouwstra J, Kurreeman F. J Invest Dermatol 138: 2018 826-835	26

Publications

Citations

Antisense Long Non-Coding RNAs Are Deregulated in Skin Tissue of Patients with Systemic Sclerosis.
Messemaker TC, Chadli L, Cai G, Goelela VS, Boonstra M, Dorjée AL, Andersen SN, Mikkers HMM, van 't Hof P, Mei H, Distler O, Draisma HHM, Johnson ME, Orzechowski NM, Simms RW, Toes REM, Aarbiou J, Huizinga TW, Whitfield ML, DeGroot J, de Vries-Bouwstra J, Kurreeman F. J Invest Dermatol 138: 2018 826-835