Microglia articles from across Nature Portfolio

Microglia exhibit unexpected sex differences in gene expression and accessibility and compromised inflammatory responses during the aging process in mice. We established a mouse model with accelerated microglial turnover (3xDR), which results in aged microglia in non-aged brains. Analysis of this model revealed that aged microglia themselves contribute to cognitive decline.

When and how microglia engulf synapses and myelin is still unclear. Here, the authors provide a suite of flow cytometry-based approaches to quantify engulfment, paving the way for high-throughput assessment of microglial function in health and disease.

The role of microglia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is unclear. Here, the authors show that iPSC microglia from C9orf72-ALS patients are toxic to motor neurons and identify microglial MMP9 as a potential therapeutic target.

The role of lactate in the control of microglial function remains poorly investigated. Here, the authors show that lactate promotes lysosomal acidification in microglia, and that mice lacking the lactate transporter MCT4 in these cells display defective brain development and anxiety-like behavior.

Li et al. provide a transcriptional and epigenetic characterization of microglia in aging mice brain by developing a three-round depletion–repopulation (3xDR) model to study aged microglia in non-aged brain, giving insights into the molecular mechanism underlying microglia aging.

Co-inhibitory signaling controls immune mechanisms in health and disease. The authors here show that in autoimmune neuroinflammation, astrocytic PD-L1 mitigates autoimmune neuroinflammation through interaction with PD1 expressing microglia.

Microglia exhibit unexpected sex differences in gene expression and accessibility and compromised inflammatory responses during the aging process in mice. We established a mouse model with accelerated microglial turnover (3xDR), which results in aged microglia in non-aged brains. Analysis of this model revealed that aged microglia themselves contribute to cognitive decline.

Vasek et al. show that microglia perform protein translation in their processes and that this translation is important for the number of processes and formation of phagocytic cups. These findings may provide insight into how microglia respond rapidly to a wide variety of local signals in defined cellular compartments.

We found evolutionarily conserved astrocyte and microglia subpopulations shared across multiple brain regions. We reveal similarities and differences between Alzheimer’s disease glia and Parkinson’s disease glia, as well as regional variance linked to disease pathology and neurodegeneration.