Characterisation of stromal-specific reprogramming in human cutaneous melanocytic neoplasms using laser-capture microdissection coupled with RNAseq

To define stromal transcriptional changes across the transition from normal tissue to benign nevus to malignant melanoma, laser-capture microdissection (LCM) was used to selectively isolate stromal regions from archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections of normal skin (n=18 patients), benign cutaneous nevi (n=10 patients), cutaneous melanoma (n=20 patients), avoiding contamination from epidermal, melanocytic, and tumour cell compartments.

Where present, matched epidermal and tumour regions from the same patients were also microdissected for comparison. RNA was extracted from microdissected FFPE material and sequenced by single-end RNA sequencing (Illumina NovaSeq 6000, 100 bp). This dataset enables identification of stromal transcriptional changes conserved across the cutaneous melanocytic malignancy spectrum.