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Background: The tumour microenvironment significantly influences the clinical response of patients to therapeutic immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI), but a comprehensive understanding of the underlying immune-regulatory proteome is still lacking., Objectives: To decipher targetable biologic processes that determine tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TiLs) as a cellular equivalent of clinical response to ICI., Methods: We mapped the spatial distribution of proteins in TiL-enriched vs. TiL-low compartments in melanoma by combining microscopy, matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry imaging and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, as well as computational data mining. Pharmacological modulation of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) activity in syngeneic mouse models was used to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological SIRT1 activation in two syngeneic melanoma mouse models, one known to be α-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) sensitive and the other α-PD-1 resistant., Results: Spatial proteomics and gene ontology-based enrichment analysis identified > 145 proteins enriched in CD8high tumour compartments, including negative regulators of mammalian target of rapamycin signalling such as SIRT1. Multiplexed immunohistochemistry confirmed that SIRT1 protein was expressed more in CD8high than in CD8low compartments. Further analysis of bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing data from melanoma tissue samples suggested the expression of SIRT1 by different lymphocyte subpopulations (CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells and B cells). Furthermore, we showed in vivo that pharmacological SIRT1 activation increased the immunological effect of α-PD-1 ICI against melanoma cells in mice, which was accompanied by an increase in T-cell infiltration and T-cell-related cytokines, including interferon (IFN)-γ, CCL4, CXCL9, CXCL10 and tumour necrosis factor-α. In silico analysis of large transcriptional data cohorts showed that SIRT1 was positively associated with the proinflammatory T-cell chemokines CXCL9, CXCL10 and IFN-γ, and prolonged overall survival of patients with melanoma., Conclusions: Our study deciphers the proteomics landscape in human melanoma, providing important information on the tumour microenvironment and identifying SIRT1 as having important prognostic and therapeutic implications., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest J.M.-P. has served as a consultant for and/or has received honoraria from Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Sanofi; and has received travel support from Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Pierre Fabre and Therakos. S.U. declares research support from Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck Serono; speakers and advisory board honoraria from Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck Serono, and Novartis; and meeting and travel support from Almirall, Bristol Myers Squibb, IGEA Clinical Biophysics, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pierre Fabre and Sun Pharma, outside the submitted work. D. Schadendorf has received grants and other support from Bristol Myers Squibb; personal fees from Bristol Myers Squibb during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Amgen; personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim; personal fees from InFlarX; personal fees and other support from Roche; grants, personal fees and other support from Novartis; personal fees from Incyte; personal fees and other support from Regeneron; personal fees from 4SC; personal fees from Sanofi; personal fees from Neracare; personal fees from Pierre-Fabre; personal fees and other support from Merck-EMD; personal fees from Pfizer; personal fees and other support from Philiogen; personal fees from Array; and personal fees and other support from MSD Sharp & Dohme, outside the submitted work. A.R. reports grants from Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb and Adtec; personal fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme; and nonfinancial support from Amgen, Roche, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb and Teva., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Association of Dermatologists. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The cellular and molecular microenvironment of epithelial stem/progenitor cells is critical for their long-term self-renewal. We demonstrate that mesenchymal stem cell-like dermal microvascular pericytes are a critical element of the skin's microenvironment influencing human skin regeneration using organotypic models. Specifically, pericytes were capable of promoting homeostatic skin tissue renewal by conferring more planar cell divisions generating two basal cells within the proliferative compartment of the human epidermis, while ensuring complete maturation of the tissue both spatially and temporally. Moreover, we provide evidence supporting the notion that BMP-2, a secreted protein preferentially expressed by pericytes in human skin, confers cell polarity and planar divisions on epidermal cells in organotypic cultures. Our data suggest that human skin regeneration is regulated by highly conserved mechanisms at play in other rapidly renewing tissues such as the bone marrow and in lower organisms such as Drosophila . Our work also provides the means to significantly improve ex vivo skin tissue regeneration for autologous transplantation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.