Non-severe thermal burn injuries induce long lasting gene expression changes in specific cortical neuron and glia cell types

Burn injuries are devastating traumas, often leading to life-long consequences that extend beyond the observable burn scar. Burn injury patients commonly develop chronic neurological disorders but the long-lasting impacts of burn injuries on neurons and glia in the brain is unknown. Whole transcriptome RNA-sequencing from cortical excitatory neurons, inhibitory neurons, astrocytes and microglia showed very few changes to the expression of genes with known functions five weeks following a non-severe burn injury in adult mice. However, genes related to GABA-A receptors in excitatory neurons and several cellular functions in microglia was found to be to differentially expressed in burn injured mice. These findings shed light on the long-term effect of burn injuries on the brain and may help identify potential therapeutic targets and windows to prevent neurological dysfunction in burn patients. Overall design: Differential gene expression analysis of whole transcriptome sequencing data from mice that received a non-severe thermal burn injury compared to a sham injury for four different, isolated cortical cell types (excitatory neurons, inhibitory neurons, astrocytes and microglia).