Fig. 2: Single-neuron projectome-guided analysis of neural circuits underlying LHA circuit in locomotion control. | Nature Communications

Fig. 2: Single-neuron projectome-guided analysis of neural circuits underlying LHA circuit in locomotion control.

From: Activation of hypothalamic-pontine-spinal pathway promotes locomotor initiation and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in mice

Fig. 2: Single-neuron projectome-guided analysis of neural circuits underlying LHA circuit in locomotion control.

a Projection strength of 916 LHA neurons arranged according to the clustering assignment. Each column represents a neuron. Each row represents a brain region, and the heatmap colors indicate projection strength. b Sagittal views of the morphology of all neurons (left) and the example neuron (right) of four classes of LHA neurons. c Sagittal views of the morphology of a spinal projecting LHA neuron. d Strategy for viral injection to demonstrate the existence of LHA-spinal cord circuit. e LHA excitatory projections in lumbar spinal cord. Scale bar, 200 μm. f Representative image showing spinal cord-projecting LHA glutamatergic neurons. Scale bar, 200 μm. g The morphology of representative neurons in the LHA projecting to MSDB (top) and PnO (bottom). h Representative images showing different downstream regions of LHA Vglut2+ neurons from anterograde axonal AAV-DIO-ChR2-mCherry tracing. Scale bar, 200 μm. i Strategy for activation of spinal cord-projecting LHA glutamatergic neurons (top) and terminal stimulation of downstream brain regions (bottom). j Quantification of total distance and maximum speed corresponding to optogenetic activation. One-way ANOVA, followed by followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparison. n = 3 attempts per mouse; n = 6 mice per group. ****p < 0.0001. Error bars, SEM. k Heatmap illustrating speed versus time during optical stimulation of LHA neurons projecting to spinal cord and other downstream brain regions. l Top: Strategy for activating MSDB projecting LHA neurons in Vglut2-cre mice. Bottom: Centre of body mass trajectories of single trials in open field arena during 3-s time windows: stationary phase (red), stimulation phase (cyan) and after stimulation offset (orange). m Top: Strategy for activating PnO projecting LHA neurons in Vglut2-cre mice. Bottom: Centre of body mass trajectories of single trials in open field arena during 3-s time windows: stationary phase (Red), stimulation phase (cyan) and after stimulation offset (orange). n Heatmap illustrating speed versus time during optical stimulation of MSDB and PnO-projecting LHA excitatory neurons. Source data are provided as a Source data file.

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