Two different macrophage populations contribute to CNS neuroinflammation: CNS-resident microglia and CNS-infiltrating peripheral macrophages. Markers distinguishing these two populations in tissue sections have not been identified. Therefore, we compared gene expression between LPS (lipopolysaccharide)/interferon (IFN)gamma-treated microglia from neonatal mixed glial cultures and similarly trea...

OBJECTIVE Laquinimod is an emerging oral medication for multiple sclerosis (MS) that reduces brain atrophy and progression of disability in two Phase III clinical trials. The mechanism of these effects is unclear. Persistent activation of microglia occurs in MS and contributes to injury. Thus, we investigated whether laquinimod alters properties of microglia in culture and in experimental autoi...

The inflammatory responses in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and prion-related encephalopathies (PRE) are dominated by microglia activation. Several studies have reported that the amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides, which are associated with AD, and the pathogenic isoform of prion protein (PrPSc) have a crucial role in neuronal death and gliosis that occur in both of these disorders. In this study, we inv...

Microglia are brain resident macrophages important for brain development, connectivity, homeostasis and disease. However, it is still largely unclear how microglia functions and their identity are regulated at the molecular level. Although recent transcriptomic studies have identified genes specifically expressed in microglia, the function of most of these genes in microglia is still unknown. H...

Expression profiling of distinct central nervous system (CNS) cell populations has been employed to facilitate disease classification and to provide insights into the molecular basis of brain pathology. One important cell type implicated in a wide variety of CNS disease states is the resident brain macrophage (microglia). In these studies, microglia are often isolated from dissociated brain tis...

Microglia are being increasingly recognized as playing important roles in neurodevelopment. The cerebellum matures postnatally, undergoing major growth, but the role of microglia in the developing cerebellum is not well understood. Using the laboratory rat we quantified and morphologically categorized microglia throughout the vermis and across development using a design-based unbiased stereolog...

By causing damage to neural networks, spinal cord injuries (SCI) often result in severe motor and sensory dysfunction. Functional recovery requires axonal regrowth and regeneration of neural network, processes that are quite limited in the adult central nervous system (CNS). Previous work has shown that SCI lesions contain an accumulation of activated microglia, which can have multiple pathophy...

Glioblastoma multiforme is a deadly cancer whose current treatment options are limited. The ability of glioblastoma tumor cells to infiltrate the surrounding brain parenchyma critically limits the effectiveness of current treatments. We investigated how microglia, the resident macrophages of the brain, stimulate glioblastoma cell invasion. We first examined the ability of normal microglia from ...

Recent years have seen significant changes in the way scientists view microglia and their role in health and disease. For decades, it was presumed that microglia were stationary, inactive immune cells in the brain, waiting for an immunologic insult to call them into action. In contrast, modern imaging techniques have revealed that microglia are constantly in motion, surveying their environment....

Microglia are the immune cells in the central nervous system and control the brain homeostasis [1]. When microglia find either infected or dead cells in brain, they are activated and ingest debris to maintain the normal brain condition. Although microglia modulate brain environment via macrophage-like aspects, they also play important roles in the developing brain. In the past few years, severa...