Rise of the Microglia
New research shows that the resident immune cells of the brain are involved in both development and disease
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Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, have long been the underdogs of the glia world, passed over for other, flashier cousins, such as astrocytes. Although microglia are best known for being the brain’s primary defenders, scientists now realize that they play a role in the developing brain and may also be implicated in developmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The change in attitude is clear, as evidenced by the buzz around this topic at this year’s Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference, which took place from October 17 to 21 in Chicago, where scientists discussed their role in both health and disease.
Activated in the diseased brain, microglia find injured neurons and strip away the synapses, the connections between them. These cells make up around 10 percent of all the cells in the brain and appear during early development. For decades scientists focused on them as immune cells and thought that they were quiet and passive in the absence of an outside invader. That all changed in 2005, when experimenters found that microglia were actually the fastest-moving structures in a healthy adult brain. Later discoveries revealed that their branches were reaching out to surrounding neurons and contacting synapses. These findings suggested that these cellular scavengers were involved in functions beyond disease.
The Brain’s Sculptors
The discovery that microglia were active in the healthy brain jump-started the exploration into their underlying mechanisms: Why do these cells hang around synapses? And what are they doing?/.../
The discovery that microglia were active in the healthy brain jump-started the exploration into their underlying mechanisms: Why do these cells hang around synapses? And what are they doing?/.../
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