Single cell transcriptional profiling of cultured developing neurons upon inflammatory challenge [in vitro]

The communication between immune and central nervous system represents an emerging field in neuroscience with many potential consequences both in basic and translational medicine. Among the plethora of mechanisms which might be involved, it is now clear that that immune molecules released upon inflammatory state can modulate different physiological aspects of brain development, resulting in long-lasting pathological consequences which may interfere with normal behavior during adulthood. A common aspect of this immune molecule is to promote deep transcriptional changes responsible for long-term effects. Single-cell RNA sequencing is now becoming a cutting-edge technology for studying the genomic rearrangement occurring at single cell level in different experimental models, thus opening a new frontier in medicine. Here, by using primary cultured neurons as a simplified model for studying neuronal development, we study the long-term consequences of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukine-6 (IL-6) on developing neurons through a single-cell sequencing approach. Based on the immuneprofiling of the analyzed cells, we identified different neuronal and non-neuronal cell clusters whose transcriptional profile changed specifically upon the inflammatory stimulation. Overall design: Cultured hippocampal neurons from C57 BL/6 E18 embryos in control condition and upon IL6 treatment harvested at days in vitro 5 (DIV5)