Next generation sequencing revealed disease-specific microglia classes relying on distinct transcriptomes

Microglia in the spinal dorsal horn have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injury. We have revently found that CD11c-expressing spinal microglia appear after the development of behavioral pain hypersensitivity following nerve injury and are essential for recovery from neuropathic pain. In order to better understand the gene expression profiles of CD11c-expressing microglia, we performed quantitative bulk RNA sequencing of microglia isolated from mice expressing Venus fluorescent protein under the control of CD11c promoter. We found that CD11c-expressing microglia show distinct gene expression profile compared to CD11c-negative microglia following nerve injury. Overall design: Transcriptome profiles of microglia from spinal dorsal horn of CD11c-venus mice before and after peripheral nerve injury were generated by deep sequencing.