Spatial transcriptomics reveals distinct cell type dynamics following opioid dependence in female mice with the common human mu-opioid receptor variant, Oprm1 A118G

To investigate how this variant shapes the brain's transcriptomic landscape in response to chronic opioid exposure, we performed spatial transcriptomics using the NanoString CosMx Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI) with the 960-plex Mouse Neuroscience Panel on coronal brain sections from adult female Oprm1 A112G knock-in mice (modeling the human A118G SNP).

Mice homozygous for either the ancestral (AA) or variant (GG) allele received chronic morphine or saline treatment. A total of 12 mice (3 per group in a 2x2 factorial design: genotype x treatment) were profiled across 4 CosMx slides, yielding over 130,000 spatially-resolved single-cell transcriptomes spanning multiple brain regions. This dataset enables investigation of genotype- and treatment-dependent transcriptomic changes at single-cell resolution with preserved spatial context.