Layer-Resolved Spatial Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals Distinct Fibrotic and Muscularizing Submucosal Niches in Fibrostenotic Crohn’s Disease
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Background and Aims
Fibrostenotic stricture is a severe complication of Crohn’s disease (CD) that affect up to 50% of patients over their lifetime, causing irreversible narrowing of the intestinal lumen and bowel obstruction, but the molecular programs that distinguish stenotic from non-stenotic inflammation and the relative contributions of fibrosis and smooth-muscle remodeling remain incompletely characterized. We aimed to dissect bowel-wall compartment-specific and histology-defined remodeling programs in fibrostenotic CD.
Methods
Matched full-thickness terminal ileal tissues from 4 patients with fibrostenotic CD were sampled from stenotic stricture (SS), non-stenotic inflamed bowel (NS), and non-inflamed bowel (NI). Histomorphology-guided NanoString GeoMx whole-transcriptome profiling was performed across mucosa, muscularis mucosae, submucosa, and muscularis propria. GeoMx data were processed by standard software provided by GeoMx platform. DESeq2 models included patient identity as a blocking factor, and the analysis was performed in 74 histologically valid regions of interest (ROIs) representing full spectrum of CD histopathologies. DEGs were defined as adjusted P < .05 and |log2FC| >= 1.0.
Results
Out of 18,677 genes analyzed in each of the ROIs, direct SS-versus-NS comparison identified 0 significant DEGs in mucosa, 18 in muscularis mucosae, 43 in submucosa, and 0 in muscularis propria. NS-versus-NI submucosa showed 132 DEGs (131 increased, 1 decreased), dominated by humoral/plasma-cell genes with a modest stromal-remodeling component. SS-versus-NI submucosa showed 144 DEGs (138 increased, 6 decreased) with coordinated contractile, extracellular-matrix/remodeling and cell-matrix adhesion programs. Muscularized versus fibrotic SS submucosa showed 219 DEGs, with marked enrichment of contractile and remodeling genes in muscularized regions. Excluding 5 follicle-containing submucosal ROIs markedly altered the NS comparison but not the core SS fibromuscular program. Exploratory follicular-niche analyses showed that lymphoid follicle-rich (LFR) submucosa was lymphoid/B-cell enriched relative to lymphoid follicle-null (LFN) areas; SS-LFR nevertheless acquired a stronger fibroblast/ECM program relative to NS-LFR, while CCL19 was the only significant LFR-versus-LFN DEG within SS.
Conclusions
Fibrostenotic CD is characterized by spatially concentrated submucosal fibromuscular remodeled inflammatory program. Non-stenotic submucosa is heterogeneous and may already show regional stromal remodeling, whereas established stenosis displays a broader and more robust ECM-contractile-adhesion phenotype with molecularly distinct fibrotic and muscularized niches.
