Low numbers of cytokine transcripts drive inflammatory skin diseases by initiating amplification cascades in localized epidermal clusters

Abstract

Abundant polyclonal T cells infiltrate chronic inflammatory diseases and characterization of these cells is needed to distinguish disease-driving from bystander immune cells. Here, we investigated 52,000 human cutaneous transcriptomes of non-communicable inflammatory skin diseases (ncISD) using spatial transcriptomics. Despite the expected T cell infiltration, we observed only 1-10 pathogenic T cell cytokine per skin section. Cytokine expression was limited to lesional skin and presented in a disease-specific pattern. In fact, we identified responder signatures in direct proximity of cytokines, and showed that single cytokine transcripts initiate amplification cascades of thousands of specific responder transcripts forming localized epidermal clusters. Thus, within the abundant and polyclonal T cell infiltrates of ncISD, only a few T cells drive disease by initiating an inflammatory amplification cascade in their local microenvironment.