Brain’s Resident Immune Cells Gone Rogue: Impacts on Thalamic Degeneration After Stroke
Lin Kooi Ong, PhD
@DrLinOng
In my previous Blogging Stroke post, it is apparent that brain damage is not only confined to the primary infarction site after ischemic stroke, but also in remote regions of the brain. Indeed, secondary thalamic degeneration has been constantly observed in neuroimaging studies among stroke patients with cortical stroke as well as in experimental stroke models. While the mechanisms involved in the development of secondary thalamic degeneration have not been fully elucidated, studies suggest that neuroinflammation is most likely involved. Microglia are thought to be the primary resident immune cells of the brain mediating neuroinflammatory responses after stroke.
In this study, Cao and colleagues investigated the spatiotemporal changes of neurodegeneration, neuroinflammatory responses, and microglial activation for up to 84 days after experimental cortical stroke. They found that microglial activation occurred rapidly and preceded the progressive neuronal loss in the thalamus after stroke. Results from transcriptome analysis of the thalamus showed robust increase in the expression of neuroinflammation and microglia related genes. Excitingly, using a cell sorting technique, the team discovered a unique subtype of CD11c-positive microglia with disease-associated molecular profiles in the thalamus. These disease-associated microglia include reduced expression of Tmem119 and CX3CR1, and increased expression of ApoE, Axl, LpL, CSF1, and Cst7.