| First Author | Quillet R | Year | 2023 |
| Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 5891 |
| PubMed ID | 37041197 | Mgi Jnum | J:334879 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7463467 | Doi | 10.1038/s41598-023-32720-3 |
| Citation | Quillet R, et al. (2023) Characterisation of NPFF-expressing neurons in the superficial dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord. Sci Rep 13(1):5891 |
| abstractText | 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. |
