Origin and differentiation of microglia

By Florent Ginhoux, Shawn Lim, G. Hoeffel, Donovan Low, Tara L. Huber. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 2013

854 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Microglia are the resident macrophage population of the central nervous system (CNS). Adequate microglial function is crucial for a healthy CNS. Microglia are not only the first immune sentinels of infection, contributing to both innate and adaptive immune responses locally, but are also involved in the maintenance of brain homeostasis. Emerging data are showing new and fundamental roles for microglia in the control of neuronal proliferation and differentiation, as well as in the formation of synaptic connections. While microglia have been studied for decades, a long history of experimental misinterpretation meant that their true origins remained debated. However, recent studies on microglial origin indicate that these cells in fact arise early during development from progenitors in the embryonic yolk sac (YS) that seed the brain rudiment and, remarkably, appear to persist there into adulthood. Here, we review the history of microglial cells and discuss the latest advances in our understanding of their origin, differentiation, and homeostasis, which provides new insights into their roles in health and disease.

Subfields: Developmental Neuroscience, Immunology, Neurology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3bc53428fd99d908868cd14f5e76c8aba80ebece

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Developmental Neuroscience

1. Amanda Sierra

In Immunology

1. M. Guilliams
2. A. Mildner
3. Steffen Jung
4. Florent Ginhoux
5. C. Varol
6. V. Perry
7. M. Cragg
8. P. Italiani

In Neurology

1. M. Guilliams
2. V. Perry
3. Steffen Jung
4. Florent Ginhoux
5. Amanda Sierra
6. R. Ransohoff
7. C. Cunningham

Citations in the corpus

• Tissue-Resident Macrophage Ontogeny and Homeostasis. (2016, background): “In rodents, macrophages are present in the brain rudiment (for review, see Ginhoux et al., 2013) and developing skin (for review, see Ginhoux and Merad, 2010) as early as embryonic day (E)10.5.”
• Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: An Overview of Pathophysiology, Models and Acute Injury Mechanisms (2019, background): “Microglia are resident immune cells of the CNS that originate from yolk sac during the embryonic period (221).”
• Macrophages: development and tissue specialization. (2015, background): “progenitors arising later in embryonic development (42, 43).”
• Coupled Proliferation and Apoptosis Maintain the Rapid Turnover of Microglia in the Adult Brain (2017, background): “In an attempt to reconcile conflicting evidence about the contribution of circulating monocytes to the composition of the microglial population at perinatal stages (Ginhoux et al., 2013), we developed a cell-tracking approach based on the intra-liver tracing of embryonic hematopoiesis.”
• Identification of a Unique TGF-β Dependent Molecular and Functional Signature in Microglia (2013, neutral): “5 and may isolate the developing brain from the contribution of fetal liver hematopoiesis 40 .”
• The biphasic function of microglia in ischemic stroke (2017, neutral): “Further, this ‘‘third element’’ was divided into various cell types based on morphological and functional differences (Ginhoux et al., 2013).”