Division of Neuropathology, Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Neurosciences Center, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Acta Neuropathol. 2010 Jan;119(1):89-105. doi: 10.1007/s00401-009-0622-0. Epub 2009 Dec 13.
The past 20 years have seen a gain in knowledge on microglia biology and microglia functions in disease that exceeds the expectations formulated when the microglia "immune network" was introduced. More than 10,000 articles have been published during this time. Important new research avenues of clinical importance have opened up such as the role of microglia in pain and in brain tumors. New controversies have also emerged such as the question of whether microglia are active or reactive players in neurodegenerative disease conditions, or whether they may be victims themselves. Premature commercial interests may be responsible for some of the confusion that currently surrounds microglia in both the Alzheimer and Parkinson's disease research fields. A critical review of the literature shows that the concept of "(micro)glial inflammation" is still open to interpretation, despite a prevailing slant towards a negative meaning. Perhaps the most exciting foreseeable development concerns research on the role of microglia in synaptic plasticity, which is expected to yield an answer to the question whether microglia are the brain's electricians. This review provides an analysis of the latest developments in the microglia field.
过去 20 年来，人们对小胶质细胞生物学和小胶质细胞在疾病中的功能的认识有了很大的提高，超出了引入小胶质细胞“免疫网络”时所预期的程度。在此期间，已经发表了超过 10000 篇文章。一些具有重要临床意义的新研究途径已经开辟，例如小胶质细胞在疼痛和脑肿瘤中的作用。也出现了一些新的争议，例如小胶质细胞在神经退行性疾病中是活跃的还是反应性的参与者，或者它们是否可能本身就是受害者。过早的商业利益可能是导致目前阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病研究领域中小胶质细胞研究存在一些混淆的原因之一。对文献的批判性回顾表明，尽管普遍倾向于负面含义，但“（小）胶质细胞炎症”的概念仍有待解释。也许最令人兴奋的可预见的发展涉及小胶质细胞在突触可塑性中的作用的研究，这有望回答小胶质细胞是否是大脑的电工的问题。本文对小胶质细胞领域的最新发展进行了分析。
