PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yi Xu
AU  - Claudia Lopes
AU  - Hagen Wende
AU  - Zhen Guo
AU  - Leping Cheng
AU  - Carmen Birchmeier
AU  - Qiufu Ma
TI  - Ontogeny of Excitatory Spinal Neurons Processing Distinct Somatic Sensory Modalities
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5512-12.2013
DP  - 2013 Sep 11
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 14738--14748
VI  - 33
IP  - 37
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/37/14738.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/37/14738.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2013 Sep 11; 33
AB  - Spatial and temporal cues govern the genesis of a diverse array of neurons located in the dorsal spinal cord, including dI1-dI6, dILA, and dILB subtypes, but their physiological functions are poorly understood. Here we generated a new line of conditional knock-out (CKO) mice, in which the homeobox gene Tlx3 was removed in dI5 and dILB cells. In these CKO mice, development of a subset of excitatory neurons located in laminae I and II was impaired, including itch-related GRPR-expressing neurons, PKCγ-expressing neurons, and neurons expressing three neuropeptide genes: somatostatin, preprotachykinin 1, and the gastrin-releasing peptide. These CKO mice displayed marked deficits in generating nocifensive motor behaviors evoked by a range of pain-related or itch-related stimuli. The mutants also failed to exhibit escape response evoked by dynamic mechanical stimuli but retained the ability to sense innocuous cooling and/or warm. Thus, our studies provide new insight into the ontogeny of spinal neurons processing distinct sensory modalities.