{"doi":"10.1038/s41598-021-97084-y","title":"Pituitary hormones are specifically expressed in trigeminal sensory neurons and contribute to pain responses in the trigeminal system","abstract":"Abstract Trigeminal (TG), dorsal root (DRG), and nodose/jugular (NG/JG) ganglia each possess specialized and distinct functions. We used RNA sequencing of two-cycle sorted Pirt-positive neurons to identify genes exclusively expressing in L3–L5 DRG, T10-L1 DRG, NG/JG, and TG mouse ganglion neurons. Transcription factor Phox2b and Efcab6 are specifically expressed in NG/JG while Hoxa7 is exclusively present in both T10-L1 and L3–L5 DRG neurons. Cyp2f2 , Krt18, and Ptgds , along with pituitary hormone prolactin ( Prl ), growth hormone ( Gh ), and proopiomelanocortin ( Pomc ) encoding genes are almost exclusively in TG neurons. Immunohistochemistry confirmed selective expression of these hormones in TG neurons and dural nerves; and showed GH expression in subsets of TRPV1 + and CGRP + TG neurons. We next examined GH roles in hypersensitivity in the spinal versus trigeminal systems. Exogenous GH produced mechanical hypersensitivity when injected intrathecally, but not intraplantarly. GH-induced thermal hypersensitivity was not detected in the spinal system. GH dose-dependently generated orofacial and headache-like periorbital mechanical hypersensitivity after administration into masseter muscle and dura, respectively. Periorbital mechanical hypersensitivity was reversed by a GH receptor antagonist, pegvisomant. Overall, pituitary hormone genes are selective for TG versus other ganglia somatotypes; and GH has distinctive functional significance in the trigeminal versus spinal systems.","journal":"Scientific Reports","year":2021,"id":182903,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":14,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.952,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":695785,"name":"Hyeonwi Son","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":290300,"name":"Jennifer Mecklenburg","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":316213,"name":"Priscilla A. Barba-Escobedo","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":574538,"name":"Meilinn Tram","orcid":"0000-0002-2164-6447","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":695784,"name":"Ruben Gomez","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":694919,"name":"John Shannonhouse","orcid":"0000-0002-2749-1140","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":288573,"name":"Yi Zou","orcid":"0000-0002-1742-9650","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":502170,"name":"Korri Weldon","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":574541,"name":"Shivani Ruparel","orcid":"0000-0002-8232-3780","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":263243,"name":"Zhao Lai","orcid":"0000-0002-3543-5376","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":288574,"name":"Alexei V. Tumanov","orcid":"0000-0001-6042-0152","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":694920,"name":"Yu Shin Kim","orcid":"0000-0002-6677-5656","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":288575,"name":"Armen N. Akopian","orcid":"0000-0002-1066-253X","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":697387,"name":"Anahit H. Hovhannisyan","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":79,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:48:17.816498Z","pmid":"34497285","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}