Characterisation of NPFF-expressing neurons in the superficial dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord

Excitatory interneurons in the superficial dorsal horn (SDH) are heterogeneous, and include a class known as vertical cells, which convey information to lamina I projection neurons. We recently used pro-NPFF antibody to reveal a discrete population of excitatory interneurons that express neuropeptid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-04, Vol.13 (1), p.5891-5891, Article 5891
Main Authors: Quillet, Raphaëlle, Dickie, Allen C., Polgár, Erika, Gutierrez-Mecinas, Maria, Bell, Andrew M., Goffin, Luca, Watanabe, Masahiko, Todd, Andrew J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/2620
631/378/87
Animals
Antibodies
Dendritic spines
Dorsal horn
Electrophysiological recording
Gastrin
Gastrin-releasing peptide
Humanities and Social Sciences
Interneurons
Kinases
Labeling
Mice
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Neurons
Neuropeptide Y
Neuropeptides
Oligopeptides
Peptides
Proteins
Receptors, Bombesin
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spinal cord
Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn
Vertical cells
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Summary:Excitatory interneurons in the superficial dorsal horn (SDH) are heterogeneous, and include a class known as vertical cells, which convey information to lamina I projection neurons. We recently used pro-NPFF antibody to reveal a discrete population of excitatory interneurons that express neuropeptide FF (NPFF). Here, we generated a new mouse line (NPFF Cre ) in which Cre is knocked into the Npff locus, and used Cre-dependent viruses and reporter mice to characterise NPFF cell properties. Both viral and reporter strategies labelled many cells in the SDH, and captured most pro-NPFF-immunoreactive neurons (75–80%). However, the majority of labelled cells lacked pro-NPFF, and we found considerable overlap with a population of neurons that express the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR). Morphological reconstruction revealed that most pro-NPFF-containing neurons were vertical cells, but these differed from GRPR neurons (which are also vertical cells) in having a far higher dendritic spine density. Electrophysiological recording showed that NPFF cells also differed from GRPR cells in having a higher frequency of miniature EPSCs, being more electrically excitable and responding to a NPY Y1 receptor agonist. Together, these findings indicate that there are at least two distinct classes of vertical cells, which may have differing roles in somatosensory processing.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-32720-3