Anatomical characterisation of somatostatin-expressing neurons belonging to the anterolateral system

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Anterolateral system (ALS) spinal projection neurons are essential for pain perception. However, these cells are heterogeneous, and there has been extensive debate about the roles of ALS populations in the different pain dimensions. We recently performed single-nucleus RNA sequencing on a developmentally-defined subset of ALS neurons, and identified 5 transcriptomic populations. One of these, ALS4, consists of cells that express Sst, the gene coding for somatostatin, and we reported that these were located in the lateral part of lamina V. Here we use a SstCre mouse line to characterise these cells and define their axonal projections. We find that their axons ascend mainly on the ipsilateral side, giving off collaterals throughout their course in the spinal cord. They target various brainstem nuclei, including the parabrachial internal lateral nucleus, and the posterior triangular and medial dorsal thalamic nuclei. We also show that in the L4 segment Sst is expressed by ~ 75% of ALS neurons in lateral lamina V and that there are around 120 Sst-positive lateral lamina V cells on each side. Our findings indicate that this is a relatively large population, and based on projection targets we conclude that they are likely to contribute to the affective-motivational dimension of pain.