P38 MAP Kinase Signaling in Microglia Plays a Sex-Specific Protective Role in CNS Autoimmunity and Regulates Microglial Transcriptional States.

ABSTRACT: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, representing the leading cause of non-traumatic neurologic disease in young adults. This disease is three times more common in women, yet more severe in men, but the mechanisms underlying these sex differences remain largely unknown. MS is initiated by autoreactive T helper cells, but CNS-resident and CNS-infiltrating myeloid cells are the key proximal effector cells regulating disease pathology. We have previously shown that genetic ablation of p38α MAP kinase broadly in the myeloid lineage is protective in the autoimmune model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), but only in females, and not males. To precisely define the mechanisms responsible, we used multiple genetic approa

SUBMITTER: McGill MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8542909 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature