Schwann cell-secreted PGE2 promotes sensory neuron excitability during development [RNA-Seq]

Electrical excitability—the ability to fire and propagate action potentials—is a signature feature of neurons. How neurons become excitable during development and whether excitability is an intrinsic property of neurons or requires signaling from glial cells remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Schwann cells, the most abundant glia in the peripheral nervous system, promote somatosensory neuron excitability during development. We find that Schwann cells secrete prostaglandin E2, which is necessary and sufficient to induce developing somatosensory neurons to express normal levels of genes required for neuronal function, including voltage gated sodium channels, and to fire action potential trains. In this RNA-Seq study, we discovered that treating cultured DRG neurons with Schwann cell-conditioned media or PGE2 increased the expression of several genes required for neuronal maturation and excitability, including voltage-gated sodium channels. Overall design: DRGs were dissected from E15 embryos using timed pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats. 10–18 embryos were pooled for each experiment, and each pregnant rat was considered one biological replicate. DRG neurons were isolated using an immunopanning protocol. At DIV 13 DRG neurons were treated with either Schwann cell conditioned media (SCCM) or 1 um PGE2 overnight and total RNA was purified on DIV14 for bulk RNA-seq analysis