The spatiotemporal dynamics of microglia across the human lifespan
Developmental Cell. 2022-09-01; 57(17): 2127-2139.e6
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.07.015
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1. Dev Cell. 2022 Sep 12;57(17):2127-2139.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.07.015.
Epub 2022 Aug 16.
The spatiotemporal dynamics of microglia across the human lifespan.
Menassa DA(1), Muntslag TAO(2), Martin-Estebané M(2), Barry-Carroll L(2),
Chapman MA(2), Adorjan I(3), Tyler T(3), Turnbull B(2), Rose-Zerilli MJJ(4),
Nicoll JAR(5), Krsnik Z(6), Kostovic I(6), Gomez-Nicola D(7).
Author information:
(1)School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United
Kingdom; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Electronic address: .
(2)School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United
Kingdom.
(3)Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Semmelweis University,
Budapest, Hungary.
(4)Cancer Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton,
United Kingdom.
(5)Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of
Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
(6)Croatian Institute for Brain Research, University of Zagreb Medical School,
Zagreb, Croatia.
(7)School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United
Kingdom. Electronic address: .
Microglia, the brain’s resident macrophages, shape neural development and are
key neuroimmune hubs in the pathological signatures of neurodevelopmental
disorders. Despite the importance of microglia, their development has not been
carefully examined in the human brain, and most of our knowledge derives from
rodents. We aimed to address this gap in knowledge by establishing an extensive
collection of 97 post-mortem tissues in order to enable quantitative,
sex-matched, detailed analysis of microglia across the human lifespan. We
identify the dynamics of these cells in the human telencephalon, describing
waves in microglial density across gestation, infancy, and childhood, controlled
by a balance of proliferation and apoptosis, which track key neurodevelopmental
milestones. These profound changes in microglia are also observed in bulk
RNA-seq and single-cell RNA-seq datasets. This study provides a detailed insight
into the spatiotemporal dynamics of microglia across the human lifespan and
serves as a foundation for elucidating how microglia contribute to shaping
neurodevelopment in humans.
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.07.015
PMCID: PMC9616795
PMID: 35977545 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of interests The authors declare no
competing interests.