Some authors claim that microglia originate from the neuroepithelium, although most now believe that microglial cells are of mesodermal origin, and probably belong to the monocyte/macrophage cell line. These cells must enter the developing central nervous system (CNS) from the blood stream, the ventricular space or the meninges. Afterward microglial cells are distributed more or less homogeneou...

Oxidative brain damage, such as excitotoxicity and stroke, leads to primary neuronal destruction. The primary damage is further potentiated by macrophages and microglial cells, which are attracted and invade into the zone of damage resulting in secondary neuronal death. Since the essential trace element selenium has anti-inflammatory properties, we analyzed the effects of selenium on these infl...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to establish a co-culture model of mouse neurons and microglial cells, and to analyze the mechanism of action of oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD) and transient oxygen glucose deprivation (tOGD) preconditioning cell models. RESULTS Mouse primary neurons and BV2 microglial cells were successfully cultured, and the OGD and tOGD models were also establishe...

Microglia are highly dynamic immune cells of the CNS and their dynamism is proposed to be regulated by neuronal activities. However, the mechanisms underlying neuronal regulation of microglial dynamism have not been determined. Here, we found an increased number of microglial primary processes in the hippocampus during KA-induced seizure activity. Consistently, global glutamate induced robust m...

Nanog is an essential transcription factor maintaining the self-renewal and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, which binds to nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) proteins, inhibits their transcriptional activity and represses their pro-differentiation activity. The persistent and excessive activation of microglial cells, as primary immune cells in the ce...

Microglia are resident innate immune cells which release many factors including proinflammatory cytokines, nitric oxide (NO) and neurotrophic factors when they are activated in response to immunological stimuli. Recent reports show that pathophysiology of schizophrenia is related to the inflammatory responses mediated by microglia. Intracellular Ca(2+) signaling, which is mainly controlled by t...

Bacterial DNA containing motifs of unmethylated CpG dinucleotides (CpG-DNA) triggers innate immune cells through the pattern recognition receptor Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR-9). CpG-DNA possesses potent immunostimulatory effects on macrophages, dendritic cells, and B lymphocytes. Therefore, CpG-DNA contributes to inflammation during the course of bacterial infections. In contrast to other TLR-dep...

BACKGROUND Neuropathic pain (NPP) arises from a lesion or dysfunction of the somatosensory nervous system. Recent studies have demonstrated multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in NPP development. This study aimed to investigate the effects of miR-128 on microglial cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS We established a compressive spinal cord injury (SCI) model and collected the spinal cord segment...

Phencyclidine (PCP), dizocilpine maleate (MK801), and other NMDA antagonists are toxic to neurons in the posterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortex. To determine if additional neurons are damaged, the distribution of microglial activation and 70 kDa heat shock protein (HSP70) induction was studied following the administration of PCP and MK801 to rats. PCP (10-50 mg/kg) induced microglial acti...

Microglial cells, the resident immune cells of the spinal cord, become activated in response to peripheral nerve injury. Microglia activation contributes to the development of neuropathic pain. Here we employed microarray analysis of individually collected pools of 10 spinal microglia cells to identify changes of levels and cell-to-cell expression variance of microglial genes during their activ...