ArticlePain2017
Preprotachykinin A is expressed by a distinct population of excitatory neurons in the mouse superficial spinal dorsal horn including cells that respond to noxious and pruritic stimuli.
Article in Pain, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Broadening the View: Substance P and Its Metabolism in Pruritus-Related Diseases.The Journal of dermatology · 2026Review
- Conserved Cell Type Signatures Across the Brainstem and Spinal Cord in the Mouse Central Nervous System.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Anatomical characterisation of somatostatin-expressing neurons belonging to the anterolateral system.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Targeting spinal mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2 alleviates inflammatory and neuropathic pain.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Spatial, transcriptomic, and epigenomic analyses link dorsal horn neurons to chronic pain genetic predisposition.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Descending dopaminergic pathway facilitates itch signal processing via activating spinal GRPREMBO reports · 2023Article
- Neuropeptide Y-expressing dorsal horn inhibitory interneurons gate spinal pain and itch signalling.eLife · 2023Article
- Calretinin-expressing islet cells are a source of pre- and post-synaptic inhibition of non-peptidergic nociceptor input to the mouse spinal cord.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Calretinin-expressing islet cells: a source of pre- and post-synaptic inhibition of non-peptidergic nociceptor input to the mouse spinal cord.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Activation of Parabrachial Tachykinin 1 Neurons Counteracts Some Behaviors Mediated by Parabrachial Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide Neurons.Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Characterisation of NPFF-expressing neurons in the superficial dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals diversity within mammalian spinal motor neurons.Nature communications · 2023Article
- A novel spinal neuron connection for heat sensation.Neuron · 2022Article
- Characterisation of deep dorsal horn projection neurons in the spinal cord of the Phox2a::Cre mouse line.Molecular pain · 2022Article
- A functional subdivision within the somatosensory system and its implications for pain research.Neuron · 2022Review
- Long March Toward Safe and Effective Analgesia by Enhancing Gene Expression ofFrontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Review
- Characterisation of lamina I anterolateral system neurons that express Cre in a Phox2a-Cre mouse line.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Spinal Excitatory Dynorphinergic Interneurons Contribute to Burn Injury-Induced Nociception Mediated by Phosphorylated Histone 3 at Serine 10 in Rodents.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The superficial dorsal horn, which is the main target for nociceptive and pruritoceptive primary afferents, contains a high density of excitatory interneurons. Our understanding of their roles in somatosensory processing has been restricted by the difficulty of distinguishing functional populations among these cells. We recently defined 3 nonoverlapping populations among the excitatory neurons, based on the expression of neurotensin, neurokinin B, and gastrin-releasing peptide. Here we identify and characterise another population: neurons that express the tachykinin peptide substance P. We show with immunocytochemistry that its precursor protein (preprotachykinin A, PPTA) can be detected in ∼14% of lamina I-II neurons, and these are concentrated in the outer part of lamina II. Over 80% of the PPTA-positive cells lack the transcription factor Pax2 (which determines an inhibitory phenotype), and these account for ∼15% of the excitatory neurons in this region. They are different from the neurotensin, neurokinin B, or gastrin-releasing peptide neurons, although many of them contain somatostatin, which is widely expressed among superficial dorsal horn excitatory interneurons. We show that many of these cells respond to noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli and to intradermal injection of pruritogens. Finally, we demonstrate that these cells can also be identified in a knock-in Cre mouse line (Tac1), although our findings suggest that there is an additional population of neurons that transiently express PPTA. This population of substance P-expressing excitatory neurons is likely to play an important role in the transmission of signals that are perceived as pain and itch.
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