Project description:Painful radiculopathy, mainly caused by physical damage to spinal nerve roots, brings algesia in their innervated areas. Intriguingly, the region of paresthesia is not always limited to the injured neuron-innervated area, and abnormal activation is also frequently observed in adjacent intact nerve segments. Since injured and uninjured nerve fibers comingle in one nerve trunk, we propose a hypothesis that the compression of the spinal nerve produces a degenerative environment at the distal end of the nerve, affecting the undamaged nerve fibers. We divided the rats into two groups: Compression of L5 spinal nerve in the experimental group and sham operation in the sham group. DRGs of L4, L5 and L6, femoral nerve and sciatic nerve were collected for RNA-seq. The results showed that L5 nerve compression resulted in inflammatory response in adjacent non-injured L4 DRG. The femoral nerve and sciatic nerve showed signs of nerve damage and repair. This suggests that injured nerve fibers can influence the properties of adjacent intact fibers through the nerve trunk which they converge.
Project description:We report here a systematic approach to characterize the transcriptional responses of different cells types in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) to peripheral nerve injury using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq). We compare scRNAseq datasets of lumbar DRGs form naïve mice with corresponding datasets from mice subjected to spared nerve injury (SNI) 7 or 14 days prior to analysis. SNI surgery was performed in the left and right hindleg and development of mechanical allodynia was monitored by von Frey testing relative to control mice and the baseline level. Mice were perfused with PBS prior to extraction of L3 and L4 DRGs and DRGs were enzymatically and mechanically dissociated to single cell suspension before scRNAseq. Analysis of transcriptional changes in this nerve injury-paradigm reveals a differential response at 7 days versus 14 days post injury, suggesting dynamic gene modulation over time.
Project description:We generated whole-genome gene expression profiles of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons following nerve damage. DRG neurons extend one peripheral axon into the spinal nerve and one central axon into the dorsal root. The peripheral axon regenerates vigorously, while in contrast the central axon has little regenerative capacity. For this study, two groups of animals were subjected either to sciatic nerve (SN) or dorsal root (DR) crush, and at 12, 24, 72 hours and 7 days after the crush, lumbar DRGs L4, L5 and L6 were dissected and total RNA was extracted.
Project description:We generated whole-genome gene expression profiles of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons following nerve damage. DRG neurons extend one peripheral axon into the spinal nerve and one central axon into the dorsal root. The peripheral axon regenerates vigorously, while in contrast the central axon has little regenerative capacity. For this study, two groups of animals were subjected either to sciatic nerve (SN) or dorsal root (DR) crush, and at 12, 24, 72 hours and 7 days after the crush, lumbar DRGs L4, L5 and L6 were dissected and total RNA was extracted. For each time point after lesion, three biological replicate RNA samples were hybridized together with the common reference sample consisting of labeld RNA pooled from three unlesioned animals.
Project description:Genes are up and down regualted in DRG and spinal dorsal cord after peripheral nerve injury WT male adult with sciatic and femoral nerve transection 7 days, RNA was purified from ipilateral or contralateral L4-L6 DRGs or lumbar spinal dorsal cords
Project description:Website for easy exploration of the data: https://rna-seq-browser.herokuapp.com/# For the first time, we here characterize the transcriptional signature of satellite glial cells (SGCs) in a nerve injury-paradigm by isolating SGCs from mouse dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) after peripheral nerve injury followed by next generation RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). We found that SGCs regulate their gene expression differently at 3 days and 14 days after peripheral nerve injury suggesting that they change their function over time. At both time points, we found downregulation of several genes linked to cholesterol. After 14 days we further detect regulation of genes linked to the immune system (MHC protein complex and leukocyte migration). The SGC RNA-seq data is accompanied by RNA-seq of purified nociceptors from injured (partial sciatic nerve ligation) or sham (ipsi after sham operation or contra after partial sciatic nerve ligation) L3-L5 DRGs.
Project description:DRG samples were extracted at 28 and 50 days from L5 spinal nerve ligated rats and sham operated rats. Samples were pooled for each time point per group and hybridised to duplicate to RG_u34 genchips (A, B and C chips). Keywords: Disease state analysis
Project description:DRG samples were extracted at 28 and 50 days from L5 spinal nerve ligated rats and sham operated rats. Samples were pooled for each time point per group and hybridised to duplicate to RG_u34 genchips (A, B and C chips). Experiment Overall Design: Samples were pooled and therefore no biological replication was possible on the arrays
Project description:Peripheral nerve injury alters the expression of hundreds of proteins in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Targeting some of these proteins has led to successful treatments for acute pain, but not for sustained postoperative neuropathic pain. The latter may require targeting multiple proteins. Since a single microRNA (miR) can affect the expression of multiple proteins, here, we describe an approach to identify chronic neuropathic pain-relevant miRs. We used two variants of the spared nerve injury (SNI): Sural-SNI and Tibial-SNI and found distinct pain phenotypes between the two. Both models induced strong mechanical allodynia, but only Sural-SNI rats maintained strong mechanical and cold allodynia, as previously reported. In contrast, we found that Tibial-SNI rats recovered from mechanical allodynia and never developed cold allodynia. Since both models involve nerve injury, we increased the probability of identifying differentially regulated miRs that correlated with the quality and magnitude of neuropathic pain and decreased the probability of detecting miRs that are solely involved in neuronal regeneration. We found seven such miRs in L3-L5 DRG. The expression of these miRs increased in Tibial-SNI. These miRs displayed a lower level of expression in Sural-SNI, with four having levels lower than those in sham animals. Bioinformatics analysis of how these miRs could affect the expression of some ion channels supports the view that, following a peripheral nerve injury, the increase of the 7 miRs may contribute to the recovery from neuropathic pain while the decrease of four of them may contribute to the development of chronic neuropathic pain. The approach used resulted in the identification of a small number of potentially neuropathic pain relevant miRs. Additional studies are required to investigate whether manipulating the expression of the identified miRs in primary sensory neurons can prevent or ameliorate chronic neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injuries. To identify the miRs that were differentially dysregulated between Tibial-SNI and Sural-SNI, we first performed 12 microarrays in a limited number of samples (in four individual DRGs per group: Sham, Tibial-SNI and Sural-SNI; two L3-DRG and two L4-DRG). Then, miRs identified as having differential expression were corroborated with real time qRT-PCR in RNA isolated from individual DRGs (L3, L4 and L5) derived from 4 rats per group (not presented here, but in the manuscript).
Project description:Expression profiling of L4 and L5 Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) in the spinal nerve ligation model of neuropathic pain. The goal of the study was to identify genes involved in neuropathic pain This series of samples comprises of contralateral and ipsilateral L4 and L5 DRG tissue collected 4 weeks after rats underwent a L5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL) or a sham operation with no L5 spinal nerve ligation. This defines 8 groups (i) contralateral L4 DRG from the sham cohort (n=5), (ii) ipsilateral L4 DRG from sham cohort (n=5), (iii) contralateral L4 DRG from SNL cohort (n=5), (iv) ipsilateral L4 DRG from the SNL chort (n=5), (v) contralateral L5 DRG from the sham cohort (n=5), (vi) ipsilateral L5 DRG from sham cohort (n=5), (vii) contralateral L5 DRG from SNL cohort (n=5), (viii) ipsilateral L5 DRG from the SNL cohort (n=5)