• Guan-Yu Jiang, Meng-Han Dai, Kun Huang, Guo-Dong Chai, Jia-Yin Chen, Ling Chen, Bing Lang, Qing-Xiu Wang, David St Clair, Colin McCaig, Yu-Qiang Ding, and Ling Zhang.
• 1] Key Laboratory of Arrhythmias, Ministry of Education of China, East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China [2] Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China [3] School of Medical Sciences, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, United Kingdom.
• Sci Rep. 2015 Aug 7; 5: 12787.

AbstractAcute itch is divided into histamine- and non-histamine-dependent subtypes, and our previous study has shown that activation of ERK signaling in the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) is required selectively for histamine-induced itch sensation. Morphological characteristics of pERK-expressing neurons are required for exploring the mechanism underlying spinal itch sensation. To investigate whether pERK-expressing neurons are supraspinally-projecting neurons, we injected Fluorogold (FG) into the ventrobasal thalamic complex (VB) and parabrachial region, the two major spinal ascending sites in rodents. A small number (1%) of pERK-positive neurons were labeled by FG, suggesting that histamine-induced activation of ERK is primarily located in local SDH neurons. We then examined the co-localization of pERK with Calbindin and Lmx1b, which are expressed by excitatory neurons, and found that more than half (58%) of pERK-positive neurons expressed Lmx1b, but no co-expression with Calbindin was observed. On the other hand, approximately 7% of pERK-positive neurons expressed GAD67, and 27% of them contained Pax2. These results support the idea that pERK-expressing neurons serve as a component of local neuronal circuits for processing itch sensation in the spinal cord.

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