In SSc patients, the GSEA results revealed enrichment of various fatty acid metabolic processes, such as acyl − CoA metabolic process, cholesterol biosynthetic process, fatty − acyl − CoA biosynthetic process, fatty acid synthase activity and fatty acid metabolism, etc. These results indicate that CCL2 may play a role in the pathogenesis of SSc by affecting the metabolism of fatty acids. Here, FASN is linked to systemic sclerosis.