Notably, several prominent IFN inducible genes (IFI27, MX1, OAS2, and HERC5) were among a limited number of transcripts whose expression in the PBC transcriptome directly correlated with their expression in the skin tissue, indicating that there is a biological link between the IFN signature in the PBCs and disease affected tissue in SSc. Here, HERC5 is linked to systemic sclerosis.