Microglia contribute to the pathogenesis of brain diseases via regulation of neuroinflammation, a localized inflammation of the peripheral and central nervous system ( Heppner et al., 2015 Ji et al., 2014 Ransohoff, 2016). These include neurodegenerative diseases like such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, neuropsychiatric diseases for instance depression, and anxiety, and neurodevelopmental diseases such as autism ( Crotti and Ransohoff, 2016 Hanisch and Kettenmann, 2007 Mosser et al., 2017 Salter and Stevens, 2017 Zhan et al., 2014). Microglia are emerging as key regulators of brain diseases. Microglia are long-lived cells, with a median lifetime of well over 15 months, and half of all microglia survive for the entirety of a mouse’s lifespan ( Fuger et al., 2017). neuronal C1q and microglial C3 receptors) ( Stevens et al., 2007).

For example, microglial processes engulf synapses and induce synaptic pruning during critical developmental stages, which involves the activation of the classic complement cascade (e.g.

During development microglia dynamically interact with synapses to modify their structures and functions in the healthy brain. Increasing evidence suggests that microglia are a heterogeneous population throughout the CNS and play an active role in maintaining normal physiological conditions, as they sense the cellular environment with their ramified processes and undergo rapid morphological changes in response to mediators such as ATP ( Davalos et al., 2005 Hanisch and Kettenmann, 2007). During development, microglia originate from erythromyeloid progenitors in the yolk sac and develop in the forming CNS ( Crotti and Ransohoff, 2016). Microglia are macrophage-like cells in the central nervous system (CNS) which regulate homeostasis in the brain and spinal cord.

2018 reviews 0f lyn for mac