Loss of bhlha9 Impairs Thermotaxis and Formalin-Evoked Pain in a Sexually Dimorphic Manner

C-LTMRs are known to convey affective aspects of touch and to modulate injury-induced pain in humans and mice. However, a role for these neurons in temperature sensation has been suggested, but not fully demonstrated. Here, we report that deletion of C-low-threshold mechanoreceptor (C-LTMR)-expresse...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Cell reports (Cambridge) 2020-01, Vol.30 (3), p.602-610.e6
Hauptverfasser: Bohic, Manon, Marics, Irène, Santos, Catarina, Malapert, Pascale, Ben-Arie, Nissim, Salio, Chiara, Reynders, Ana, Le Feuvre, Yves, Saurin, Andrew J., Moqrich, Aziz
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:C-LTMRs are known to convey affective aspects of touch and to modulate injury-induced pain in humans and mice. However, a role for these neurons in temperature sensation has been suggested, but not fully demonstrated. Here, we report that deletion of C-low-threshold mechanoreceptor (C-LTMR)-expressed bhlha9 causes impaired thermotaxis behavior and exacerbated formalin-evoked pain in male, but not female, mice. Positive modulators of GABAA receptors failed to relieve inflammatory formalin pain and failed to decrease the frequency of spontaneous excitatory post-synaptic currents (sEPSCs) selectively in bhlha9 knockout (KO) males. This could be explained by a drastic change in the GABA content of lamina II inner inhibitory interneurons contacting C-LTMR central terminals. Finally, C-LTMR-specific deep RNA sequencing revealed more genes differentially expressed in male than in female bhlha9 KO C-LTMRs. Our data consolidate the role of C-LTMRs in modulation of formalin pain and provide in vivo evidence of their role in the discriminative aspects of temperature sensation. [Display omitted] •BHLHA9 function in C-LTMRs is sexually dimorphic•Loss of BHLHA9 impaired formalin-evoked pain selectively in males•BHLHA9 in C-LTMRs is required for fine discriminative aspects of temperature in males•Loss of BHLHA9 non-cell-autonomously impairs ionotropic GABAergic signaling Bohic et al. demonstrate that mice lacking the transcription factor BHLHA9 exhibit impaired thermotaxis and formalin-evoked pain. BHLHA9 mediates these effects by modulating spinal GABAergic signaling. The data consolidate the role of C-LTRMs in pain sensation and provide in vivo evidence of C-LTRMs in the discriminative aspects of temperature sensation.
ISSN:2211-1247
2211-1247
DOI:10.1016/j.celrep.2019.12.041