Eliminating microglia in Alzheimer's mice prevents neuronal loss without modulating amyloid-β pathology.

ABSTRACT: In addition to amyloid-β plaque and tau neurofibrillary tangle deposition, neuroinflammation is considered a key feature of Alzheimer's disease pathology. Inflammation in Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the presence of reactive astrocytes and activated microglia surrounding amyloid plaques, implicating their role in disease pathogenesis. Microglia in the healthy adult mouse depend on colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) signalling for survival, and pharmacological inhibition of this receptor results in rapid elimination of nearly all of the microglia in the central nervous system. In this study, we set out to determine if chronically activated microglia in the Alzheimer's disease brain are also dependent on CSF1R signalling, and if so, how these cells contribute to disease

SUBMITTER: Spangenberg EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5006229 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature