Sensory information from mechanoreceptors and nociceptors in the skin plays key roles in adaptive and protective motor behaviours. To date, very little is known about how this information is encoded by spinal cord cell types and their activity patterns, particularly under freely behaving conditions. To enable stable measurement of neuronal and glial cell activity in behaving mice, we have developed fluorescence imaging approaches based on two-and miniaturized one-photon microscopy. We show that distinct cutaneous stimuli activate overlapping ensembles of dorsal horn neurons, and that stimulus type and intensity is encoded at the single-cell level. In contrast, astrocytes show large-scale coordinated calcium responses to intense but not weak sensory inputs. Sensory-evoked activity is potently suppressed by anaesthesia. By revealing the cellular and computational logic of spinal cord networks under behaving conditions, our approach holds promise for better understanding of healthy and aberrant spinal cord processes.

SUMMARY Microglia are the intrinsic immune sentinels of the central nervous system. Their activation restricts tissue injury and pathogen spread, but in some settings, including viral infection, this response can contribute to cell death and disease. Identifying mechanisms that control microglial responses is therefore an important objective. Using replication-incompetent adenovirus 5 (Ad5)-based vectors as a model, we investigated the mechanisms through which microglia recognize and respond to viral uptake. Transgenic, immunohistochemical, molecular-genetic, and fluorescence imaging approaches revealed that phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) exposure on the outer leaflet of transduced cells triggers their engulfment by microglia through TAM receptor-dependent mechanisms. We show that inhibition of phospholipid scramblase 1 (PLSCR1) activity reduces intracellular calcium dysregulation, prevents PtdSer externalization, and enables months-long protection of vector-transduced, transgene-expressing cells from microglial phagocytosis. Our study identifies PLSCR1 as a potent target through which the innate immune response to viral vectors, and potentially other stimuli, may be controlled.

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