Characterization of the cellular microenvironment in fibrostenotic Crohn’s disease

Crohn's disease (CD) is marked by recurring intestinal inflammation and tissue injury, often resulting in fibro-stenosis and bowel obstruction, necessitating surgical intervention with high recurrence rates. To elucidate to the mechanisms underlying fibro-stenosis in CD, we analysed the transcriptome of cells isolated from the transmural ileum of CD patients, including a trio of lesions from each patient: non-affected, inflamed, and stenotic ileum samples, and compared them with samples from non-CD patients. Our computational analysis revealed that pro-fibrotic signals from a subset of monocyte-derived cells induced a disease-specific fibroblast population, resulting in chronic inflammation and tissue fibrosis. Our findings suggest that the myeloid-stromal axis may offer a promising therapeutic target to prevent fibro-stenosis in CD.

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

1 Dataset 2 Publications

Click on a Dataset ID in the table below to learn more, and to find out who to contact about access to these data

Dataset ID	Description	Technology	Samples
EGAD50000000559	This dataset contains a gene-cell matrix derived from single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of ileal tissue from Crohn's disease (CD) patients and colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. It includes: Crohn's Disease Patients: A trio of transmural lesions (stenotic, inflamed, and non-inflamed) from each patient. Colorectal Cancer Patients: Unaffected ileal tissue used as external non-inflamed control. Cell Level Metadata: The dataset includes relevant cell-level metadata such as cell type annotations used in the study. Experimental Details: Platform: 10x Genomics Chromium Single Cell 3' GEX Sequencing: Illumina NovaSeq Processing: Data processed with Cell Ranger software. Resulting count matrices were merged for downstream analysis, including integration and dimensionality reduction. Dataset Composition: Crohn's Disease Patients: 10 patients with 3 samples each (non-inflamed, inflamed, stenotic), totaling 30 samples. Colorectal Cancer Patients: 5 patients with 1 sample each of unaffected tissue, totaling 5 samples. Data Provided: Merged Raw Count Matrix: The final merged raw count matrix used for downstream analysis. Cell Metadata File: Contains details of sample, tissue, and patient for each cell in the count matrix. Barcodes File: Indicate each cell barcode which also encodes the sample, tissue, and patient details for each cell. CD.S_Inf: Stenotic Corhn's disease inflamed samples CD.S_Sten: Stenotic CD patient stenosis sample CD.S_Prox: Stenotic CD Patient - proximal non-inflamed sample CC.C_Prox: CRC Patient proximal unaffected sample eg: A barcode 'CC.C_1_Prox_AAGTCGTAGACCCTTA' indicates CRC Patient unaffected proximal sampe from CRC Patient no.1 and the nucleic acid sequence indicate a unique cell from this sample. Total Samples: Crohn's Disease (CD) Patients: 30 samples Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Patients: 5 samples Patient_no Sample Sample_type 1 CC.C_1 CC.C_1_Prox CC.C_Prox 2 CD.S_1 CD.S_1_Prox CD.S_Prox 3 CD.S_1 CD.S_1_Infl CD.S_Infl 4 CD.S_1 CD.S_1_Sten CD.S_Sten 5 CC.C_2 CC.C_2_Prox CC.C_Prox 6 CD.S_2 CD.S_2_Prox CD.S_Prox 7 CD.S_2 CD.S_2_Infl CD.S_Infl 8 CD.S_2 CD.S_2_Sten CD.S_Sten 9 CC.C_3 CC.C_3_Prox CC.C_Prox 10 CC.C_4 CC.C_4_Prox CC.C_Prox 11 CD.S_3 CD.S_3_Prox CD.S_Prox 12 CD.S_3 CD.S_3_Infl CD.S_Infl 13 CD.S_3 CD.S_3_Sten CD.S_Sten 14 CD.S_4 CD.S_4_Prox CD.S_Prox 15 CD.S_4 CD.S_4_Infl CD.S_Infl 16 CD.S_4 CD.S_4_Sten CD.S_Sten 17 CC.C_5 CC.C_5_Prox CC.C_Prox 18 CD.S_5 CD.S_5_Prox CD.S_Prox 19 CD.S_5 CD.S_5_Infl CD.S_Infl 20 CD.S_5 CD.S_5_Sten CD.S_Sten 21 CD.S_6 CD.S_6_Prox CD.S_Prox 22 CD.S_6 CD.S_6_Infl CD.S_Infl 23 CD.S_6 CD.S_6_Sten CD.S_Sten 24 CD.S_7 CD.S_7_Prox CD.S_Prox 25 CD.S_7 CD.S_7_Infl CD.S_Infl 26 CD.S_7 CD.S_7_Sten CD.S_Sten 27 CD.S_8 CD.S_8_Prox CD.S_Prox 28 CD.S_8 CD.S_8_Infl CD.S_Infl 29 CD.S_8 CD.S_8_Sten CD.S_Sten 30 CD.S_9 CD.S_9_Prox CD.S_Prox 31 CD.S_9 CD.S_9_Infl CD.S_Infl 32 CD.S_9 CD.S_9_Sten CD.S_Sten 33 CD.S_10 CD.S_10_Prox CD.S_Prox 34 CD.S_10 CD.S_10_Infl CD.S_Infl 35 CD.S_10 CD.S_10_Sten CD.S_Sten	Illumina NovaSeq 6000	35

Publications	Citations
Intercellular interaction between FAP+ fibroblasts and CD150+ inflammatory monocytes mediates fibrostenosis in Crohn's disease. Ke BJ, Abdurahiman S, Biscu F, Zanella G, Dragoni G, Santhosh S, De Simone V, Zouzaf A, van Baarle L, Stakenborg M, Bosáková V, Van Rymenant Y, Verhulst E, Verstockt S, Klein E, Bislenghi G, Wolthuis A, Frič J, Breynaert C, D'Hoore A, Van der Veken P, De Meester I, Lovisa S, Hawinkels LJ, Verstockt B, De Hertogh G, Vermeire S, Matteoli G. J Clin Invest 134: 2024 e173835	23
Creeping fat-derived mechanosensitive fibroblasts drive intestinal fibrosis in Crohn's disease strictures. Bauer-Rowe KE, Pham B, Griffin M, Liang NE, Kim A, Lu JM, Januszyk M, Guo JL, De Santis S, Xing Y, Prystupa A, Sidhu I, Suh EJ, Foster DS, Korah M, Goyal A, Wan DC, Norton JA, Delitto D, Pizarro TT, Naik SL, Hyun JS, Longaker MT. Cell 188: 2025 6536-6553.e26	3

Publications

Citations

Intercellular interaction between FAP+ fibroblasts and CD150+ inflammatory monocytes mediates fibrostenosis in Crohn's disease.
Ke BJ, Abdurahiman S, Biscu F, Zanella G, Dragoni G, Santhosh S, De Simone V, Zouzaf A, van Baarle L, Stakenborg M, Bosáková V, Van Rymenant Y, Verhulst E, Verstockt S, Klein E, Bislenghi G, Wolthuis A, Frič J, Breynaert C, D'Hoore A, Van der Veken P, De Meester I, Lovisa S, Hawinkels LJ, Verstockt B, De Hertogh G, Vermeire S, Matteoli G. J Clin Invest 134: 2024 e173835

Creeping fat-derived mechanosensitive fibroblasts drive intestinal fibrosis in Crohn's disease strictures.
Bauer-Rowe KE, Pham B, Griffin M, Liang NE, Kim A, Lu JM, Januszyk M, Guo JL, De Santis S, Xing Y, Prystupa A, Sidhu I, Suh EJ, Foster DS, Korah M, Goyal A, Wan DC, Norton JA, Delitto D, Pizarro TT, Naik SL, Hyun JS, Longaker MT. Cell 188: 2025 6536-6553.e26