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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Reliable Identification of Living Dopaminergic Neurons in Midbrain Cultures Using RNA Sequencing and TH-promoter-driven eGFP Expression
Published on: February 10, 2017
Single-cell spatial transcriptomic and translatomic profiling of dopaminergic neurons in health, aging, and disease
Peter Kilfeather1, Jia Hui Khoo2, Katherina Wagner3
1Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre and Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK; Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, University of Oxford, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK; Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
Abstract:
The brain is spatially organized and contains unique cell types, each performing diverse functions and exhibiting differential susceptibility to neurodegeneration. This is exemplified in Parkinson's disease with the preferential loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta. Using a Parkinson's transgenic model, we conducted a single-cell spatial transcriptomic and dopaminergic neuron translatomic analysis of young and old mouse brains. Through the high resolving capacity of single-cell spatial transcriptomics, we provide a deep characterization of the expression features of dopaminergic neurons and 27 other cell types within their spatial context, identifying markers of healthy and aging cells, spanning Parkinson's relevant pathways. We integrate gene enrichment and genome-wide association study data to prioritize putative causative genes for disease investigation, identifying CASR as a regulator of dopaminergic calcium handling. These datasets represent the largest public resource for the investigation of spatial gene expression in brain cells in health, aging, and disease.
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