Transcriptomic Analysis of Trigeminal Ganglion and Spinal Trigeminal Nucleus Caudalis in Mice with Inflammatory Temporomandibular Joint Pain

Tieli Dong; Haichao Si; Zhisong Li; Qian Bai; Feng Tao

doi:10.2147/JPR.S364887

Transcriptomic Analysis of Trigeminal Ganglion and Spinal Trigeminal Nucleus Caudalis in Mice with Inflammatory Temporomandibular Joint Pain

J Pain Res. 2022 May 23:15:1487-1502. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S364887. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Tieli Dong^#¹, Haichao Si^#^{1

2}, Zhisong Li¹, Qian Bai¹, Feng Tao³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Anesthesiology, Nanyang Central Hospital, Nanyang, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, Dallas, TX, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Persistent facial pain heavily impacts the quality of life in patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders. Previous studies have demonstrated that long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) is an important regulator of pain. In this study, we aimed to analyze lncRNA expression in the whole transcriptome of trigeminal ganglia (TG) and spinal trigeminal nucleus caudalis (Sp5C) in a chronic inflammatory TMJ pain mouse model.

Methods: Chronic inflammatory TMJ pain was induced by intra-TMJ injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). Mouse TG and Sp5C tissues were harvested on day 4 after CFA injection. The lncRNA expression patterns in the whole transcriptome of TG and Sp5C were profiled with RNA sequencing.

Results: We observed that 38 lncRNAs and 849 mRNAs were differentially expressed after CFA treatment. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis further revealed relationships among those differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs and their potential functions. Specific categories of biological process, cellular processes, and molecular function of the differentially expressed transcripts were ascertained.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that lncRNA expression in the whole transcriptome of trigeminal nociceptive system could contribute to the molecular mechanisms that underlie chronic inflammatory TMJ pain.

Keywords: RNA sequencing; lncRNAs; spinal trigeminal nucleus caudalis; temporomandibular joint pain; trigeminal ganglia.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project (NO: 82001191, Q. Bai) and Program for Science & Technology Innovation Talents in Universities of Henan Province (NO: 22HASTIT047, Q. Bai).