Mouse E14.5 Ret+ mechanoreceptors vs. laser captured spinal cord dorsal column midline cells

Our study examined a population of radial glial-like cells (RGLCs) in the dorsal spinal cord midline that we showed provide long-distance growth support for longitudinal rapidly adapting (RA) mechanoreceptor axons during development of spinal cord dorsal column. To evaluate potential molecular markers of these cells, we isolated the RGLCs using hematoxylin and eosin staining to visualize the cell bodies in the dorsal column midline from E14.5 mouse embryos, and used laser capture microdissection for each sample ("LCM"). To compare transcript expression to the adjacent RA mechanoreceptive axons, we performed FACS of dorsal root ganglion of E14.5 Ret-Tdtomato+ RA mechanoreceptors. Our analyses revealed a high enrichment of radial glial-specific markers in the LCM replicates compared to Ret-Tdt samples. In contrast, neuronal-specific markers were more highly enriched in the Ret-Tdt samples, as expected. These data suggest the midline RGLCs are of radial glial identity. Others may find these data helpful in determining potential RGLC-mechanoreceptor molecular interactions in subsequent studies. mRNA transcript levels to compare E14.5 mouse Ret+ mechanoreceptors vs. laser captured dorsal column spinal cord midline cells, deep sequencing, analyzed in triplicates for each cell type, using Illumina (HiSeq 2500)