Culture shock: microglial heterogeneity, activation, and disrupted single-cell microglial networks in vitro.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, play a critical role in numerous diseases, but are a minority cell type and difficult to genetically manipulate in vivo with viral vectors and other approaches. Primary cultures allow a more controlled setting to investigate these cells, but morphological and transcriptional changes upon removal from their normal brain environment raise many caveats from in vitro studies.

Methods

To investigate whether cultured microglia recapitulate in vivo microglial signatures, we used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) to compare microglia freshly isolated from the brain to primary microglial cultures. We performed cell population discovery, differential expression analysis, and gene co-expression module analysis to compare

SUBMITTER: Cadiz MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8962153 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature