Transcriptional profiling of dental sensory and proprioceptive trigeminal neurons using single-cell RNA sequencing

We used high depth single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) combined with retrograde tracing in mice to characterize the molecular composition of five main types of dental primary afferent (DPA) neurons and compared them to the proprioceptive mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus (MTN) neurons. Retrogradely labeled DPA and MTN neurons from the molars of C57BL/6 mice mouse (5-week-old) were harvested and cultured. Neurons were then individually collected with a glass micropipette and analyzed using scRNAseq.