The hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1) gene of Candida albicans encodes for a fungal cell wall protein, required for hyphal development and yeast adhesion to epithelial cells; yet, its role in pathogenesis remains largely unknown. In the present study, we analyzed two C. albicans laboratory strains, the DAY286 (HWP1/HWP1) and the null mutant FJS24 (hwp1/hwp1) and six clinical isolates [3 harbouring t...

Previous studies have confirmed that oxidized adenosine triphosphate, a P2X7 receptor antagonist, attenuates lipopolysaccharide-mediated microglial activation and inflammatory expression following neuronal damage in rat brain. NaCl and temperature may affect the potency of oxidized adenosine triphosphate. Brilliant blue G is a derivative of a widely used food additive and has little toxicity. T...

Extracellular calcium concentrations in the brain fluctuate during neuronal activities and may affect the behavior of brain cells. Microglia are highly dynamic immune cells of the brain. However, the effects of extracellular calcium concentrations on microglial dynamics have not been investigated. Here, we addressed this question in mouse brain slices and in vivo using two-photon microscopy. We...

The study of the dynamics and functions of microglia in the healthy and diseased brain is a matter of intense scientific activity. The application of new techniques and new experimental approaches has allowed the identification of novel microglial functions and the redefinition of classic ones. In this review, we propose the study of microglial functions, rather than their molecular profiles, t...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Microglia are resident immunocompetent and phagocytic cells of central nervous system (CNS), which produce various cytokines and growth factors in response to injury and thereby regulate disease pathology. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of microglial transplantation on focal cerebral ischemia model in rat. METHODS Transient middle cerebral arter...

Microglia are resident immune cells of the CNS. They are involved in the pathogenesis of diverse neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, prion diseases as well as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and AIDS dementia complex. It is widely accepted that microglia contribute to the neurodegeneration through a release of a variety of proinflammato...

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), which produce large amounts of nitric oxide (NO), is induced in macrophages and microglia in response to inflammatory mediators such as LPS and cytokines. Although iNOS is mainly expressed by microglia that become activated in different pathological and experimental situations, it was recently reported that undifferentiated amoeboid microglia can also exp...

3,4-(±)-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and 3,4-(±)-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), a primary metabolite of MDMA, are phenylethylamine derivatives that cause serotonergic neurotoxicity. Although several phenylethylamine derivatives activate microglia, little is known about the effects of MDMA on glial cells, and evidence of MDMA-induced microglial activation remains ambiguous. We initiall...

Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), are responsible for the innate brain immune defence. The exact origin of microglia is still unclear, but several reports suggest that microglia are of myeloid origin (Chan et al., 2007). They appear for the first time at an early embryonic state in the neuroepithelium and populate the brain from the blood in a second peri...

Microglial cells are the pathologic sensor of the brain, and any pathologic event triggers microglial activation, which involves migration of these cells to a lesion site. Employing different migration assays, we show that ligands for toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 stimulate random motility, while TLR7 ligands are chemoattractants. The subtype specificity of the TLR ligands was verified by using di...