Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2021 Nov 22;11(1):22671. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01820-3.
Microglia are resident immune cells in the central nervous system, showing a regular distribution. Advancing microscopy and image processing techniques have contributed to elucidating microglia's morphology, dynamics, and distribution. However, the mechanism underlying the regular distribution of microglia remains to be elucidated. First, we quantitatively confirmed the regularity of the distribution pattern of microglial soma in the retina. Second, we formulated a mathematical model that includes factors that may influence regular distribution. Next, we experimentally quantified the model parameters (cell movement, process formation, and ATP dynamics). The resulting model simulation from the measured parameters showed that direct cell-cell contact is most important in generating regular cell spacing. Finally, we tried to specify the molecular pathway responsible for the repulsion between neighboring microglia.
小胶质细胞是中枢神经系统中的固有免疫细胞，呈规则分布。先进的显微镜和图像处理技术有助于阐明小胶质细胞的形态、动态和分布。然而，小胶质细胞规则分布的机制仍有待阐明。首先，我们定量证实了小胶质细胞体在视网膜中的分布模式具有规律性。其次，我们构建了一个数学模型，其中包含可能影响规则分布的因素。接下来，我们通过实验量化了模型参数（细胞运动、过程形成和 ATP 动态）。从测量参数得到的模型模拟结果表明，细胞间的直接接触对于产生规则的细胞间距最为重要。最后，我们试图确定负责相邻小胶质细胞相互排斥的分子途径。
