Competitive repopulation of an empty microglial niche yields functionally distinct subsets of microglia-like cells.

ABSTRACT: Circulating monocytes can compete for virtually any tissue macrophage niche and become long-lived replacements that are phenotypically indistinguishable from their embryonic counterparts. As the factors regulating this process are incompletely understood, we studied niche competition in the brain by depleting microglia with >95% efficiency using Cx3cr1^CreER/+R26^DTA/+ mice and monitored long-term repopulation. Here we show that the microglial niche is repopulated within weeks by a combination of local proliferation of CX3CR1⁺F4/80^lowClec12a^- microglia and infiltration of CX3CR1⁺F4/80^hiClec12a⁺ macrophages that arise directly from Ly6C^hi monocytes. This colonization is independent of blood brai

SUBMITTER: Lund H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6242869 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature