Figure 7. Mechanosensitive neurons are specifically coupled to DBI-expressing glia.

A, Heat map for expression of DBI, Gabra1, Gabrg2, Piezo2 and TRPV1 in different populations of mouse DRG neurons and glia; data from (45). B–D, FISH analysis of Gabra1, Gabrg2 and Piezo2 mRNA expression in mouse DRG; example stainings are shown in (B). Proportions of Gabra1-positive and Gabrg2-positive neurons, which were also positive for Piezo2 are analysed in (C); proportions of Piezo2-positive neurons, which were also positive for either Gabra1 or Gabrg2 are analysed in (C). E–G, Co-localization of γ2 GABA_A and DBI immunofluorescence in rat DRG; example stainings are shown in (E). F, Cell bodies of the γ2-positive DRG neurons were auto-detected with Cellpose, the automatically detected segments were dilated by 10% and shrank by 3%. DBI immunofluorescence analysed in the ‘donut’ space between the contracted and dilated segments (schematised in the inset; See Methods). Plots show correlation between the somatic γ2 integrated density and ‘donut’ DBI integrated density. G, Correlation between the somatic diameter of the DRG neurons and DBI integrated density. H–J, Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) analysis of Dbi, TrpV1 and Piezo2 mRNA expression in mouse DRG; example stainings are shown in (H). In panels (I) and (J) a similar approach to that shown in panel (F) is shown: cell bodies of Trpv1-positive or Piezo2-positive neurons were auto-detected, the DBI reactivity in the delated segments determined as either mean grey value (I) or integrated density (J) and compared between the Trpv1-positive or Piezo2-positive neurons; ***, indicates significant difference between the DBI and GABA current amplitudes; p<0.001; unpaired t-test.