Changes in Gene Expression in Propriospinal Neurons Following Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Propriospinal neurons play important roles in recovery from spinal cord injury. Prior experiments have demonstrated that this group of neurons is comprised of a diverse set of cell types that differ in their developmental origin, gene expression patterns, morphology, and functional properties. Thus, it is likely that different subtypes of propriospinal neurons respond differently to injury and a better understanding of these differences could improve efforts to repair spinal circuits and promote recovery of function. Therefore, we isolated fluorescently labeled nuclei from adult spinal cord that belong to one broad class of propriospinal neuron (the V2a class) that our lab has previously shown to be important for recovery of breathing following spinal cord injury. We next performed single nuclei sequencing of V2a neurons isolated from cervical spinal cord before or after a C2 hemisection injury. Our analysis included first identifying different subtypes of V2a neurons found in the uninjured adult spinal cord based on similarity of gene expression patterns. Next, we analyzed the gene expression patterns of V2a neurons after injury and integrated the pre‐ and post‐injury data sets to identify changes in gene expression after injury that were were unique to subsets of V2a neurons. The data obtained will serve as an important resource to investigate the diversity of propriospinal neurons as well as identify novel therapeutic targets to promote recovery of function after spinal cord injury.