Microglia Development
ZHAO Fangying, LI Li*
Microglia were initially defined by Dr. del Rio-Hortega. As a tissue resident macrophage in the central nervous system (CNS), microglia serve as soldiers to proctect the CNS enviroment, including removing apoptotic cells, pruning synapses, clearing pathogenic microorganisms, maintaining the homeostasis and promoting the recovery and regeneration of the CNS tissues after injury. It also has functions in the progress of nervous system disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, researchers paid great efforts to investigate the cellulor and moleculor mechanisms underlying microglia development, such as when and where they are originated, how they migrate and colonize to the CNS, what is the significance of their morphological and functional changes in the CNS niches and what are the key molecules given by the microenvironment to regulate their differentiation and maturation, how many subclasses of them exist, and how they are distributed and interacted with neurons, and so on. In this review, we retrospectthe history of microglia development, summarize the recent progress on study of the origin, colonization, differentiation, maturation and functons of microglia. We also discuss the focusedpoints in the future.
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