Nature Communications (Nov 2018)

Acute microglia ablation induces neurodegeneration in the somatosensory system

  • Stephen J. Rubino,
  • Lior Mayo,
  • Isabella Wimmer,
  • Victoria Siedler,
  • Florian Brunner,
  • Simon Hametner,
  • Asaf Madi,
  • Amanda Lanser,
  • Thais Moreira,
  • Dustin Donnelly,
  • Laura Cox,
  • Rafael Machado Rezende,
  • Oleg Butovsky,
  • Hans Lassmann,
  • Howard L. Weiner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05929-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Previous studies have shown that depletion of microglia at early developmental stages leads to neuronal death. Here the authors use an inducible system to ablate microglia in adulthood, showing that such depletion leads to ataxia-like behavior and neuronal loss, and identifying the inflammatory components that may contribute.