Microglial and macrophage polarization-new prospects for brain repair

By Xiaoming Hu, R. Leak, Yejie Shi, J. Suenaga, Yanqin Gao, P. Zheng, Jun Chen. Nature Reviews Neurology, 2014

1,325 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The traditional view of the adult brain as a static organ has changed in the past three decades, with the emergence of evidence that it remains plastic and has some regenerative capacity after injury. In the injured brain, microglia and macrophages clear cellular debris and orchestrate neuronal restorative processes. However, activation of these cells can also hinder CNS repair and expand tissue damage. Polarization of macrophage populations toward different phenotypes at different stages of injury might account for this dual role. This Perspectives article highlights the specific roles of polarized microglial and macrophage populations in CNS repair after acute injury, and argues that therapeutic approaches targeting cerebral inflammation should shift from broad suppression of microglia and macrophages towards subtle adjustment of the balance between their phenotypes. Breakthroughs in the identification of regulatory molecules that control these phenotypic shifts could ultimately accelerate research towards curing brain disorders.

Subfields: Immunology, Molecular Biology, Neurology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c3bf6f58406e38c67e6270997913c08338484862

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Citations in the corpus

Stress and neuroinflammation: a systematic review of the effects of stress on microglia and the implications for mental illness (2016, background): “Of these Mhem, Mox, and M4 showmajor immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties (Hu et al. 2015; Naito et al. 2014; Moore et al. 2013).”
Inhibition of neuronal ferroptosis protects hemorrhagic brain. (2017, background): “phagocytic capacity of microglia can be affected by their polarization state (45).”
The biphasic function of microglia in ischemic stroke (2017, neutral): “The differential expression of microRNAs could affect microglia polarization and impact the function of microglia in brain injury or tissue repair (Butovsky et al., 2015; Hu et al., 2015; Ponomarev et al., 2011; Su et al., 2016).”
Functions and mechanisms of microglia/macrophages in neuroinflammation and neurogenesis after stroke. (2016, background): “For instance, we showed that regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) ameliorated ICH-induced inflammatory injury by modulating microglia/macrophage polarization towards the M2 phenotype via the IL-10/GSK3β/PTEN axis (Zhou, et al., unpublished data).”