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. 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).