Microinjection of Virus into Lumbar Enlargement of Spinal Dorsal Horn in Mice

Zhang, Zhi‐Jun; Jing, Peng-Bo; Gao, Yong-Jing

doi:10.21769/bioprotoc.2020

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…As hind paws were used to check pain sensitivity, we injected AAV‐retro‐DIO‐Flpo into the bilateral lumbar SDH of TH‐Cre mice (Zhang et al , 2016), then injected Flpo‐dependent AAVs into the A11. For the mechanosensation test, mice were placed into boxes on an elevated mesh floor.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR⁺ neurons

et al. 2023

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A11 dopaminergic neurons regulate somatosensory transduction by projecting from the diencephalon to the spinal cord, but the function of this descending projection in itch remained elusive. Here, we report that dopaminergic projection neurons from the A11 nucleus to the spinal dorsal horn (dopaminergicA11‐SDH) are activated by pruritogens. Inhibition of these neurons alleviates itch‐induced scratching behaviors. Furthermore, chemogenetic inhibition of spinal dopamine receptor D1‐expressing (DRD1+) neurons decreases acute or chronic itch‐induced scratching. Mechanistically, spinal DRD1+ neurons are excitatory and mostly co‐localize with gastrin‐releasing peptide (GRP), an endogenous neuropeptide for itch. In addition, DRD1+ neurons form synapses with GRP receptor‐expressing (GRPR+) neurons and activate these neurons via AMPA receptor (AMPAR). Finally, spontaneous itch and enhanced acute itch induced by activating spinal DRD1+ neurons are relieved by antagonists against AMPAR and GRPR. Thus, the descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates spinal itch transmission via activating DRD1+ neurons and releasing glutamate and GRP, which directly augments GRPR signaling. Interruption of this descending pathway may be used to treat chronic itch.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR⁺ neurons

et al. 2023

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“…Among the many possible mechanisms that may cause long sequences to have short equivalent lengths, by far the simplest is replication. This is because a long sequence of length L composed of multiple replications of a random sequence l bases long will have L eq ∼l, independent of L. Similarly, if genome growth is dominated by random segmental duplication [23,24,25], then the genomic L eq will be much shorter genome length [16].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We therefore propose the following conjecture: Just as randomness is a fixed-point of the action of random point mutations, the state of genomes defined by φ∼φ g is a fixed-point of the action of a robust, predominantly neutral evolution process. The observed shortness of L eq (φ g ) suggests that the neutral process is dominated by (non-deleterious) random segmental duplications [23,24,25], occurring singly [16,28] and in tandem [29]. We consider random segmental duplication to be an infrastructure-building process because it does not necessarily produce information directly.…”

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confidence: 99%

Genomes: At the edge of Chaos with maximum information capacity

Kong¹,

Chen²,

Fan³

et al. 2016

Peregrinations From Physics to Phylogeny

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We propose an order index, φ, which quantifies the notion of "life at the edge of chaos" when applied to genome sequences. It maps genomes to a number from 0 (random and of infinite length) to 1 (fully ordered) and applies regardless of sequence length. The 786 complete genomic sequences in GenBank were found to have φ values in a very narrow range, 0.037±0.027. We show this implies that genomes are halfway towards being completely random, namely, at the edge of chaos. We argue that this narrow range represents the neighborhood of a fixed-point in the space of sequences, and genomes are driven there by the dynamics of a robust, predominantly neutral evolution process.The Edge of chaos originally refers to the state of a computational system, such as cellular automata, when it is close to a transition to chaos, and gains the ability for complex information processing [1,2,3]. The notion has since been used to describe biological states, and life in general, on the assumption that life necessarily involves complex computation [4]. In model systems such as cellular automata, there are well defined procedures for recognizing the change in computational cab ability during the transition from non-chaotic to chaotic states [1,3]. However, these have not been adapted to the wider biological context, even for the simplest of organisms. But if we represent a living organism by its genome, view evolution as a dynamical process that drives genomes in the space of sequences, and consider chaos as a state of genome randomness, then we have a framework within which the meaning of "life occurs at the edge of chaos" may be investigated. Genomes, linear sequences written in the four chemical letters, or bases, A (adenine), C (cytosine), G (guanine) and T (thymine) and often referred to as books of life, regulate the functioning of organisms through the many kinds of codes embedded in them (there are also non-textual post-translational regulations; see, e.g. [5]). When genomes are seen as texts, they have several key properties reflecting their complexity, including long-range correlations and scale invariance [6,7,8] (although this topic is debated [9]), self-similarity [10,11,12,13], and distinctive Shannon redundancy [14,15,16]. However, these properties do not give a measure of the proximity of a genome to chaos or randomness. Before the edge-of-chaos notion can be explored, one needs to have a quantity that measures the randomness of genomes as texts.Here we analyze genomes in terms of the frequency of occurrence of k-letter words, called k-mers, where k is a small integer [17]. For a given k, the 4 k types of k-mers are partitioned into k+1 "m-sets", m=0-k. An m-set is composed of all the k-mers containing m and only m A or T's. There are τ m =2 k " k m « types of k-mers in an m-set.The reason for partitioning the k-mers according to ATcontent for statistical purposes is that although the A:T and C:G ratios are invariably close to 1, [18,19,20], the AT to GC ratio may differ significantly. This partition is needed for prevent...

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Anatomy and function of the vertebral column lymphatic network in mice

et al. 2019

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Cranial lymphatic vessels (LVs) are involved in the transport of fluids, macromolecules and central nervous system (CNS) immune responses. Little information about spinal LVs is available, because these delicate structures are embedded within vertebral tissues and difficult to visualize using traditional histology. Here we show an extended vertebral column LV network using three-dimensional imaging of decalcified iDISCO+-clarified spine segments. Vertebral LVs connect to peripheral sensory and sympathetic ganglia and form metameric vertebral circuits connecting to lymph nodes and the thoracic duct. They drain the epidural space and the dura mater around the spinal cord and associate with leukocytes. Vertebral LVs remodel extensively after spinal cord injury and VEGF-C-induced vertebral lymphangiogenesis exacerbates the inflammatory responses, T cell infiltration and demyelination following focal spinal cord lesion. Therefore, vertebral LVs add to skull meningeal LVs as gatekeepers of CNS immunity and may be potential targets to improve the maintenance and repair of spinal tissues.

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Microinjection of Virus into Lumbar Enlargement of Spinal Dorsal Horn in Mice

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR⁺ neurons

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR⁺ neurons

Genomes: At the edge of Chaos with maximum information capacity

Anatomy and function of the vertebral column lymphatic network in mice

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Microinjection of Virus into Lumbar Enlargement of Spinal Dorsal Horn in Mice

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR+ neurons

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR+ neurons

Genomes: At the edge of Chaos with maximum information capacity

Anatomy and function of the vertebral column lymphatic network in mice

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Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR⁺ neurons

Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPR⁺ neurons