Human Microglia Mount Multipronged Response to AD Pathology

Unlike the simple response of mouse microglia to amyloid plaques, human microglia react in diverse ways that researchers are just beginning to understand. Data from two different model systems, one in vivo and one in vitro, now provide a remarkably congruent catalogue of these reactive states. The in vivo data was described in a July 7 bioRxiv preprint. Scientists led by Renzo Mancuso at the University of Antwerp, and Bart De Strooper at KU Leuven, both in Belgium, transplanted human microglia into the brains of newborn mouse models of amyloidosis and analyzed glial gene expression six months later. They identified transcriptional profiles t…