After decades of being overlooked, a recent wave of studies have explored the roles of microglia in brain health and disease. Microglia perform important physiological functions to set up and maintain proper neural network functions, as well as orchestrate responses to toxic stimuli to limit harm. Many microglial transcriptional programs, extracellular sensing molecules, and functional outputs are seen throughout life. A stark example is the similarity of microglial responses to stressors during neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration. The same themes often match that of other tissue-resident macrophages, presenting an opportunity to apply known concepts as therapeutics develop. We argue that microglial signaling during development and neurologic disease overlap with one another and with other tissue-resident macrophage pathways, in part due to similar sensed stimuli and a conserved sensome of receptors and signaling molecules, akin to a toolkit.

在被忽视了几十年之后，最近的一波研究探索了小胶质细胞在大脑健康和疾病中的作用。小胶质细胞执行重要的生理功能，以建立和维持适当的神经网络功能，并协调对有毒刺激的反应以限制伤害。许多小胶质细胞转录程序、细胞外传感分子和功能输出在整个生命过程中都可见。一个明显的例子是神经发育和神经变性过程中小胶质细胞对应激源的反应的相似性。相同的主题通常与其他组织驻留巨噬细胞的主题相匹配，这为随着治疗的发展应用已知概念提供了机会。我们认为，发育和神经系统疾病期间的小胶质细胞信号传导相互重叠，并与其他组织驻留巨噬细胞通路重叠，部分原因是相似的感知刺激以及受体和信号分子的保守感觉，类似于工具包。