Molecular “omic” signatures in systemic sclerosis

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disorder characterized by immunologic, vascular, andextracellular matrix abnormalities. Variation in the proportion and/or timing of activation in the deregulatedmolecular pathways that underlie SSc may explain the observed clinical heterogeneity interms of disease phenotype and treatment response. In recent years, SSc research has generatedmassive amounts of “omics” level data. In this review, we discuss the body of “omics” level work in SScand how each layer provides unique insight to our understanding of SSc. We posit that effective integrationof genomic, transcriptomic, metagenomic, and epigenomic data is an important step towardprecision medicine and is vital to the identification of effective therapeutic options for patients withSSc.