神经生物学

The behavior of microglial cells involves the activity of a variety of ion channels and ion transporters, which are implicated in the regulation of ion concentrations, membrane potential, and cell volume of microglia. Fluorescence imaging has been proven to be an elegant method to study ion co ...

Microglia represent the largest population of phagocytes in the CNS and have a principal role in immune defense and inflammatory responses in the CNS. Their phagocytic activity can be studied by a variety of techniques, including a flow cytometry-based approach utilizing polystyrene l ...

Microglia are innate immune cells that survey the central nervous system (CNS) and respond almost immediately to any disturbance in CNS homeostasis. They are derived from primitive yolk sac myeloid progenitors and in the mouse colonize the CNS during fetal development. As a population, mic ...

During microglia activation the levels of active caspase-3, caspase-7 and caspase-8 are increased, which leads to the transcription of proinflammatory cytokines and factors. As such, the induction of caspase activity in microglia can be used as a marker for activation. The use of sensitive a ...

Microglia–neuron interaction is a complex process involving a plethora of ligands and receptors. The outcome of this intricate process will depend on the prevailing signals (i.e., whether the microglial cells will produce pro-inflammatory cytokines and/or phagocyte a dying neuron ...

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a technique that allows the localization of antigens or proteins in tissue sections using the high specificity and affinity of antibodies to recognize molecules and join them. The commercial offer and the standardization of protocols make this techniq ...

The use of different lectins for the study of microglial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) is a valuable tool that has been extensively used in the last years for the selective staining of this glial cell population, not only in normal physiological conditions, but also in a wide range of patholo ...

Visualization of microglia by means of histochemistry has been for years a reliable method to demonstrate this population of cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Wide range of data on microglia has been published using lectin and enzymatic histochemistry. While at present, in most labo ...

Microglia, neurons, and macroglia (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes) are the major cell types in the central nervous system. In the past decades, primary microglia-enriched cultures have been widely used to study the biological functions of microglia in vitro. In order to study the inter ...

Spinal microglia have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain after peripheral nerve injury concomitant with diseases such as diabetes and cancer. To reveal the etiological roles of microglia in behavioral pain hypersensitivity or neuronal excitability, techn ...

In vivo imaging with two-photon microscopy is becoming an indispensable technique to investigate cellular and subcellular phenomenon in living tissues including the central nervous system. This microscopy enables to image dynamics of molecules, morphology, and excitability ...

Confocal imaging of brain slices is a worthwhile analysis method to study the structure and function of resting and activated microglia with submicrometer resolution. This chapter will focus on acquisition of high-resolution confocal image stacks where we will discuss the technical ...

The generation of bone marrow radiation chimeric mice is a beneficial tool to utilize when studying inflammation of the central nervous system (CNS). It is widely accepted that blood-derived progenitors are capable of populating the CNS during chronic diseases and severe injuries; howe ...

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the central nervous system, and accumulating data demonstrates a vast array of tasks in the healthy and injured brain. Microglia participate in both innate and adaptive immune responses. These cells contribute to the brain homeostasis, includi ...

Animal models of neuroinflammatory processes are needed to study the involvement of inflammation in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. One of the models used is based on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as brain inflammation-inducing agent. This ...

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are both regulators and effectors of microglial activation, and assays of these oxidants can be used as a measure of acute and chronic activation of microglial cells. Here we describe quick methods to assess the production of superoxide, hydrogen perox ...

Cytokine measurement is a prerequisite to understand the inflammatory state of the body. Quantitative analysis of cytokines by Western blotting and ELISA is a daunting task as these are time-consuming and error-prone protocols. With the advent of flow cytometry, the estimation of cytok ...

Cytokine production by activated microglia is one of the hallmarks of inflammatory response in the CNS. The cytokines released by microglia cells can be very different depending on the proinflammatory stimulus. Traditionally, to quantify these different cytokines, the “Sandwich” ...

In situ hybridization is a powerful tool for visualizing cellular gene expression in morphologically preserved brain tissue giving precise information on the regional expression of specific mRNA sequences in cells of diverse phenotype. Here, we describe a sensitive, simple, and rob ...

Microglial cells are the resident immune-related glial cells of the central nervous system (CNS) that are crucial for maintaining homeostasis and sensing pathological alterations in the nervous system. To improve our understanding of the biological function of microglia, gene-t ...