{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,9]],"date-time":"2026-11-09T16:37:17Z","timestamp":1794242237653,"version":"4.9.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,10]],"date-time":"2026-01-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1768003200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Innate-like T cells (iLTCs) are rapid sentinels at epithelial surfaces, yet their spatial organisation and tissue-linked programmes in psoriatic inflammation remain incompletely defined. Spatial transcriptomics from independent cohorts maps \u03b3\u03b4T and mucosal-associated invariant T cells (MAIT) niches across psoriatic skin and reveals sharply divergent skin-layer arrangements. Psoriatic plaques show expansion of both niches, with \u03b3\u03b4T transcriptional signatures present in dermis and epidermis and MAIT signatures strongly enriched in the epidermis. Their compartment-specific positioning is mirrored by distinct transcriptional activities that support dermal-sentinel behaviour for \u03b3\u03b4T-enriched niches and epithelial-retention programmes for MAIT niches. Clinical severity associates with opposite niche dynamics, marked by decreasing dermal \u03b3\u03b4T frequencies and increasing epidermal MAIT abundance. Functional profiles reinforce this divergence, as dermal \u03b3\u03b4T niches display rising exhaustion-associated features with greater severity, whereas epidermal MAIT niches show stronger inflammatory and proliferation-related signals. Peripheral CITE-seq profiling identifies parallel systemic patterns, with reduced \u03b3\u03b4T frequencies and increased MAIT frequencies in blood, along with exhaustion-associated features in \u03b3\u03b4T cells and MAIT-specific trafficking cues that align with their behaviour in psoriatic tissue. Together the findings define a spatially imbalanced \u03b3\u03b4T\u2013MAIT axis in psoriatic inflammation that is linked to layer-specific organisation to local inflammatory cues, systemic immune engagement and clinical severity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms27020715","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,12]],"date-time":"2026-01-12T09:13:01Z","timestamp":1768209181000},"page":"715","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Spatial Imbalance of Innate-like T-Cell Niches Underlies Clinical Trajectories in Psoriasis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1168-8392","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Caio","family":"Bonilha","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8TA, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1038\/s41572-025-00630-5","article-title":"Psoriasis","volume":"11","author":"Armstrong","year":"2025","journal-title":"Nat. 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