Article: Microglia: The Brain's First Responders, Bilbo, Stevens

[Indigophoton]

An interesting and accessible article describing some aspects of the state of the art understanding of what microglial cells are, what they do, and how they do it.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Microglia: The Brain’s First Responders
By: Staci Bilbo, Ph.D., and Beth Stevens, Ph.D.
Editor’s Note: New knowledge about microglia is so fresh that it’s not even in the textbooks yet. Microglia are cells that help guide brain development and serve as its immune system helpers by gobbling up diseased or damaged cells and discarding cellular debris. Our authors believe that microglia might hold the key to understanding not just normal brain development, but also what causes Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, autism, schizophrenia, and other intractable brain disorders.

http://www.dana.org/Cerebrum/2017/Microglia__The_Brain_s_First_Responders/#

(Although microglial cells may well be involved in ME this article is not about ME, so hope this is the right part of the forum in which to post).

 

[Woolie]

Great article. A few key highlights for the brain-fogged:

Microglia are the permanent resident immune cells of the brain and spinal cord...

...Microglia are distributed more or less uniformly throughout the adult brain, in both white and grey matter, but in varying densities, with the highest concentrations appearing in parts of the brain stem (the substantia nigra), parts of the reward circuit of the brain (the basal ganglia), and the hippocampus. ...

Like police officers, these cells constantly survey their environment for trouble and are often the first responders to injury or disease. On their surface are a tremendous diversity of receptors for various threats, including bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogens, toxins, and xenobiotics, as well as noxious compounds released from dead or dying cells during traumatic brain injury, ischemia, and neurodegeneration...

Upon detection of trouble, microglia mount specialized responses, destroying pathogens and calling for help from other cells via signaling molecules called cytokines. ..