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Tiered Sympathetic Control of Cardiac Function Revealed by Viral Tracing and Single Cell Transcriptome Profiling

ABSTRACT: The cell bodies of postganglionic sympathetic neurons innervating the heart primarily reside in the stellate ganglion (SG), alongside neurons innervating other organs and tissues. Whether cardiac-innervating stellate ganglionic neurons (SGNs) exhibit diversity and distinction from those innervating other tissues is not known. To identify and resolve the transcriptomic profiles of SGNs innervating the heart we leveraged retrograde tracing techniques using adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing fluorescent proteins (GFP or Td-tomato) with single cell RNA sequencing. We investigated electrophysiologic, morphologic, and physiologic roles for subsets of cardiac-specific neurons and found that three of five adrenergic SGN subtypes innervate the heart. These three subtypes stratify into two subpopulations; high (NA1a) and low (NA1b and NA1c) Npy-expressing cells, exhibit distinct morphological, neurochemical, and electrophysiologic characteristics. In physiologic studies in transgenic mouse models modulating NPY signaling, we identified differential control of cardiac responses by these two subpopulations to high and low stress states. These findings provide novel insights into the unique properties of neurons responsible for cardiac sympathetic regulation, with implications for novel strategies to target specific neuronal subtypes for sympathetic blockade in cardiac disease.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE231924 | GEO | 2023/05/09

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:The cardiac autonomic nervous system is crucial in controlling cardiac function, such as heart rate and cardiac contractility, and is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. Normally, there is a balance between these two branches to maintain homeostasis. However, cardiac disease states such as myocardial infarction, heart failure, and hypertension can induce the remodeling of cells involved in cardiac innervation, which is associated with an adverse clinical outcome. Although there are vast amounts of data for the histological structure and function of the cardiac autonomic nervous system, its molecular biological architecture in health and disease is still enigmatic in many aspects. Novel technologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) hold promise for the genetic characterization of tissues at single-cell resolution. However, the relatively large size of neurons may impede the standardized use of these techniques. Here, this protocol exploits droplet-based single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), a method to characterize the biological architecture of cardiac sympathetic neurons in health and disease. A stepwise approach is demonstrated to perform snRNA-seq of the bilateral superior cervical (SCG) and stellate ganglia (StG) dissected from adult mice. This method enables long-term sample preservation, maintaining an adequate RNA quality when samples from multiple individuals/experiments cannot be collected all at once within a short period of time. Barcoding the nuclei with hashtag oligos (HTOs) enables demultiplexing and the trace-back of distinct ganglionic samples post sequencing. Subsequent analyses revealed successful nuclei capture of neuronal, satellite glial, and endothelial cells of the sympathetic ganglia, as validated by snRNA-seq. In summary, this protocol provides a stepwise approach for snRNA-seq of sympathetic extrinsic cardiac ganglia, a method that has the potential for broader application in studies of the innervation of other organs and tissues.

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Tiered Sympathetic Control of Cardiac Function Revealed by Viral Tracing and Single Cell Transcriptome Profiling

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