Subventricular zone/white matter microglia reconstitute the empty adult microglial niche in a dynamic wave
Abstract
Microglia, the brain's resident myeloid cells, play central roles in brain defense, homeostasis, and disease. Using a prolonged colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor inhibitor (CSF1Ri) approach, we report an unprecedented level of microglial depletion and establish a model system that achieves an empty microglial niche in the adult brain. We identify a myeloid cell that migrates from the subventricular zone and associated white matter areas. Following CSF1Ri, these amoeboid cells migrate radially and tangentially in a dynamic wave filling the brain in a distinct pattern, to replace the microglial-depleted brain. These repopulating cells are enriched in disease-associated microglia genes and exhibit similar phenotypic and transcriptional profiles to white matter-associated microglia. Our findings shed light on the overlapping and distinct functional complexity and diversity of myeloid cells of the CNS and provide new insight into repopulating microglia function and dynamics in the mouse brain.
Data availability
Sequencing data have been deposited in GEO under accession code GSE166092, and can be explored in an interactive fashion at http://rnaseq.mind.uci.edu/green/. All other data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and support files.
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Subventricular zone/white matter microglia reconstitute the empty adult microglial niche in a dynamic waveNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE166092.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS083801)
- Kim N Green
National Institute on Aging (R01AG056768)
- Kim N Green
National Institute on Aging (P50AG016573)
- Kim N Green
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (F31NS108611)
- Joshua Crapser
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (T32NS082174)
- Yasamine Ghorbanian
Alzheimer's Association (AARF-16-442762)
- Lindsay A Hohsfield
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Jaime Grutzendler, Yale University, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All rodent experiments were performed in accordance with animal protocols approved (AUP-17-179) by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).
Version history
- Received: January 20, 2021
- Preprint posted: February 18, 2021 (view preprint)
- Accepted: August 22, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: August 23, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: September 8, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, Hohsfield et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Cell Biology
- Immunology and Inflammation
Cytokine polyfunctionality is a well-established concept in immune cells, especially T cells, and their ability to concurrently produce multiple cytokines has been associated with better immunological disease control and subsequent effectiveness during infection and disease. To date, only little is known about the secretion dynamics of those cells, masked by the widespread deployment of mainly time-integrated endpoint measurement techniques that do not easily differentiate between concurrent and sequential secretion. Here, we employed a single-cell microfluidic platform capable of resolving the secretion dynamics of individual PBMCs. To study the dynamics of poly-cytokine secretion, as well as the dynamics of concurrent and sequential polyfunctionality, we analyzed the response at different time points after ex vivo activation. First, we observed the simultaneous secretion of cytokines over the measurement time for most stimulants in a subpopulation of cells only. Second, polyfunctionality generally decreased with prolonged stimulation times and revealed no correlation with the concentration of secreted cytokines in response to stimulation. However, we observed a general trend towards higher cytokine secretion in polyfunctional cells, with their secretion dynamics being distinctly different from mono-cytokine-secreting cells. This study provided insights into the distinct secretion behavior of heterogenous cell populations after stimulation with well-described agents and such a system could provide a better understanding of various immune dynamics in therapy and disease.
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- Immunology and Inflammation
- Medicine
Background:
Prinflammatory extracellular chromatin from neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and other cellular sources is found in COVID-19 patients and may promote pathology. We determined whether pulmonary administration of the endonuclease dornase alfa reduced systemic inflammation by clearing extracellular chromatin.
Methods:
Eligible patients were randomized (3:1) to the best available care including dexamethasone (R-BAC) or to BAC with twice-daily nebulized dornase alfa (R-BAC + DA) for seven days or until discharge. A 2:1 ratio of matched contemporary controls (CC-BAC) provided additional comparators. The primary endpoint was the improvement in C-reactive protein (CRP) over time, analyzed using a repeated-measures mixed model, adjusted for baseline factors.
Results:
We recruited 39 evaluable participants: 30 randomized to dornase alfa (R-BAC +DA), 9 randomized to BAC (R-BAC), and included 60 CC-BAC participants. Dornase alfa was well tolerated and reduced CRP by 33% compared to the combined BAC groups (T-BAC). Least squares (LS) mean post-dexamethasone CRP fell from 101.9 mg/L to 23.23 mg/L in R-BAC +DA participants versus a 99.5 mg/L to 34.82 mg/L reduction in the T-BAC group at 7 days; p=0.01. The anti-inflammatory effect of dornase alfa was further confirmed with subgroup and sensitivity analyses on randomised participants only, mitigating potential biases associated with the use of CC-BAC participants. Dornase alfa increased live discharge rates by 63% (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.01–2.61, p=0.03), increased lymphocyte counts (LS mean: 1.08 vs 0.87, p=0.02) and reduced circulating cf-DNA and the coagulopathy marker D-dimer (LS mean: 570.78 vs 1656.96 μg/mL, p=0.004).
Conclusions:
Dornase alfa reduces pathogenic inflammation in COVID-19 pneumonia, demonstrating the benefit of cost-effective therapies that target extracellular chromatin.
Funding:
LifeArc, Breathing Matters, The Francis Crick Institute (CRUK, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust).
Clinical trial number: