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Go with your gut: microbiota meet microglia

Nature Neuroscience volume 18, pages 930–931 (2015)Cite this article

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Discovering the environmental factors that control microglia is key to understanding and managing brain health. A new study finds that microbiota in the gut are essential to the regulation of microglial maturation and activation.

The human brain has endowed us with a capacity for self-awareness and a sense of being independent thinkers. It is easy to forget that we, along with other mammals, nonetheless share our bodies with trillions of microbes. Could it be that we owe our thoughts, at least in some small part, to these tiny symbionts? The gut microbial communities of mammals have evolved with their hosts to take part in this coexistence1 and are an important environmental factor that contributes to the development of several organ systems. This includes the systemic immune and central nervous systems, though previous studies have mainly examined the influence on hormonal and neuronal function and behavior2,3,4. In this issue of Nature Neuroscience, Erny et al.5 demonstrate that gut microbiota influence the CNS immune system by regulating microglial cell activation and homeostasis.

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Figure 1: Communication from gut to brain regulates microglia.

Kim Caesar/Nature Publishing Group

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kira Irving Mosher and Tony Wyss-Coray are in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA,

    Kira Irving Mosher & Tony Wyss-Coray

  2. Tony Wyss-Coray is at the Center for Tissue Regeneration, Repair and Restoration, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California, USA.,

    Tony Wyss-Coray

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  1. Kira Irving Mosher
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  2. Tony Wyss-Coray
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Correspondence to Tony Wyss-Coray.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Mosher, K., Wyss-Coray, T. Go with your gut: microbiota meet microglia. Nat Neurosci 18, 930–931 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4051

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