Figure 2: Scn9a deletion increases Penk mRNA expression in DRG neurons. | Nature Communications

Figure 2: Scn9a deletion increases Penk mRNA expression in DRG neurons.

From: Endogenous opioids contribute to insensitivity to pain in humans and mice lacking sodium channel Nav1.7

Figure 2

Reverse transcriptase–PCR (RT–PCR) analysis of Penk and Ceacam10 mRNA expression in DRG relative to Gapdh mRNA levels in wild-type littermates and Nav1.7 KO mice. (a) Increased expression of Penk mRNA was observed in both female Nav1.7 KOs (light pink column, n=3) compared with female littermates (dark pink column, n=3), as well as male Nav1.7 KOs (light blue column, n=3) compared with male littermates (dark blue column, n=3). No difference was observed between wild-type females and wild-type males. (b) Penk mRNA expression was not altered in Nav1.8 KOs compared with littermates (female Nav1.8 KOs: light pink column, n=3; female littermates: dark pink column, n=3; male Nav1.8 KOs: light blue column, n=3; male littermates: dark blue column, n=3). (c) Ceacam10 mRNA was downregulated in both female Nav1.7 KOs (light pink column, n=3) compared with female littermates (dark pink column, n=3) and male Nav1.7 KOs (light blue column, n=3) compared with male littermates (dark blue column, n=3). (d) Downregulation of Ceacam10 mRNA was also observed in Nav1.8 KOs compared with littermates (female Nav1.8 KOs: light pink column, n=3; female littermates: dark pink column, n=3; male Nav1.8 KOs: light blue column, n=3; male littermates: dark blue column, n=3). All results are shown as a fold change from wild-type littermate. (e) L5–L6 spinal cord sections were double-labelled with met-enkephalin (Green) and IB-4 (Red). Right panel insert shows higher magnification of lamina I and II within the dorsal horn. (f) Quantification of immunostaining signal shows less Met-enkephalin immunoreactivity in littermate dorsal horns (n=3) compared with the Nav1.7 KO dorsal horn (n=3). Data are shown as mean±s.e.m. All RT–PCR data are expressed as mean±s.e.m. with significance indicated by *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 (one-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni post test (a,b)). Immunoreactivity signal is expressed as mean±s.e.m. with significance indicated by *P<0.05 (Student’s t-test).

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