A) Representative 20x images of mouse and human DRG labeled with RNAscope in situ hybridization for CALCA (green), P2RX3 (blue), and CHRNA9 (red) mRNA. Mouse and human DRG were costained for NF200 protein (purple) and DAPI (purple), respectively. B) Representative 100x overlay image showing CALCA (green), P2RX3 (blue), CHRNA9 (red) and DAPI (purple) signal in human DRG. White arrows point toward CHRNA9-positive neurons. C) Pie chart representation of all CHRNA9-positive sensory neuron subpopulations in mouse and human DRG. D)
CHRNA9 mRNA was not detected in mouse DRG but was expressed in 25.6% of sensory neurons in human DRG. E) Histogram with Gaussian distribution displaying the size profile of all CHRNA 9-positive neurons in human DRG. 20x scale bar = 50 μm. 100x scale bar = 10 μm.