Role of Eosinophil in Fibrogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis

Role of Blood and Tissue Eosinophils in the Fibrogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis

Eosinophils are involved in tissue remodeling and fibrosis in many inflammatory diseases. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease with fibrotic skin and lung complications. The profibrosing properties and data from the SSc literature suggest a possible role of the eosinophils in the process of fibrogenesis of SSc.

it will assess the activation state of blood eosinophils in SSc patients compared to healthy controls (ECP production in vitro, surface activation markers, whole transcriptome array, ..).

it will also study skin eosinophils and their recruitment (extracellular eosinophil granules, eotaxins production in skin, ..)

Inclusion Criteria:

• For SSc patients:
• Meeting the 2013 ACR-EULAR criteria for diffuse SSc (n = 20) and limited SSc (n = 20)
• Having signed the informed consent
• Eosinophils ≥ 0.1 G / L on the last blood test (<3 months)

For healthy subjects:

• Without chronic pathology requiring long-term treatment
• Eosinophils between 0.1 and 0.4 G / L on recent blood test (<3 months)

Exclusion Criteria for patients and controls:

• Patient with an infection, state of emergency or progressive neoplastic pathology
• Pregnant or lactating women
• History of atopy (allergic asthma, atopic eczema, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis)
• Allergy to local anesthetics (for scleroderma patients only)
• Taking into account a minimum weight of 50 kg and in the absence of cardiorespiratory effects of scleroderma, only patients with at least 10 g of hemoglobin will be included