Fig. 4
From: Shank2 identifies a subset of glycinergic neurons involved in altered nociception in an autism model
Shank2high cells are mainly glycinergic interneurons. A set of mice with genetically labelled neuronal subpopulations were used to investigate in which type of cell Shank2 was mainly expressed. a–e GlyT2-GFP, vGluT2-Cre; ROSA26-Tomato, VGAT-Cre; ROSA-Tomato and PV-Cre; ROSA26-Tomato mice were used to identify inhibitory and excitatory neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Staining spinal cord sections with Shank2 revealed the inhibitory nature of Shank2 cells (96.6 ± 0.4% vs. 2.4 ± 0.8% VGAT + vs. GlyT2 + ; white arrows in panel d vs. blue arrow in panel b), with a high number of Shank2 expressing neurons on GlyT2 + cells (82.4 ± 4.2%; white arrows in panel a and a lower amount of Shank2 expressing neurons on PV + cells (12.9 ± 0.4%; white arrows in panel c). High expression of Shank2 was mainly observed in GlyT2 + cells compared to PV + cells (70% vs. 20%); (N = 3) scale bar: 20 µm. f–i Prrxl-Cre;Tomato, Wnt1-Cre;Tomato and ptf1a-Cre;Tomato mice were used to identify a subset of transcription factors regulating excitatory and inhibitory phenotypes. Staining spinal cord sections of these mice resulted in a low fraction of Shank2 expressing neurons on prrxl1 + and Wnt1 + cells (blue arrows in panel f and g) and a high number of Shank2 expressing neurons on ptf1a + cells (66 ± 12.3%; white arrows in panel h); (N = 3) scale bar: 20 µm. Data shown as average ± SD