Microglial phenotype: is the commitment reversible?

Microglia, the standby cells for immune defense in the CNS, have a reputation for exacerbating the neural damage that occurs in neurodegenerative diseases. However, research over the past few years has established that microglia do not constitute a single, uniform cell population, but rather compris...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in neurosciences (Regular ed.) 2006-02, Vol.29 (2), p.68-74
Main Authors: Schwartz, Michal, Butovsky, Oleg, Brück, Wolfgang, Hanisch, Uwe-Karsten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cells
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genotype & phenotype
Humans
Immune system
Inflammation - pathology
Isolated neuron and nerve. Neuroglia
Microglia - physiology
Neurosciences
Phenotype
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Microglia, the standby cells for immune defense in the CNS, have a reputation for exacerbating the neural damage that occurs in neurodegenerative diseases. However, research over the past few years has established that microglia do not constitute a single, uniform cell population, but rather comprise a family of cells with diverse phenotypes – some that are beneficial and others that the CNS can barely tolerate and that are therefore destructive. This finding raised several questions. What instructs microglia to acquire a particular phenotype, and how do these phenotypes differ? How committed are microglia to a specific phenotype? Can destructive microglia become protective, and can protective microglia retain their beneficial phenotype even when they encounter a destructive environment? Here, we address these questions, and the background of research that elicited them.
ISSN:0166-2236
1878-108X
DOI:10.1016/j.tins.2005.12.005