Centre for Neuroscience, Surgery and Trauma, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK.
Department of Neurosurgery, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London E1 1FR, UK.
Biomolecules. 2022 Apr 19;12(5):603. doi: 10.3390/biom12050603.
Neuroinflammation has recently been identified as a fundamentally important pathological process in most, if not all, CNS diseases. The main contributor to neuroinflammation is the microglia, which constitute the innate immune response system. Accurate identification of microglia and their reactivity state is therefore essential to further our understanding of CNS pathophysiology. Many staining techniques have been used to visualise microglia in rodent and human tissue, and immunostaining is currently the most frequently used. Historically, identification of microglia was predominantly based on morphological structure, however, recently there has been a reliance on selective antigen expression, and microglia-specific markers have been identified providing increased certainty that the cells observed are in fact microglia, rather than the similar yet distinct macrophages. To date, the most microglia-specific markers are P2Y12 and TMEM119. However, other microglia-related markers can also be useful for demonstrating activation state, phagocytic state, and for neuroimaging purposes in longitudinal studies. Overall, it is important to be aware of the microglia-selectivity issues of the various stains and immunomarkers used by researchers to distinguish microglia in CNS tissue to avoid misinterpretation.
神经炎症最近被确定为大多数（如果不是全部）中枢神经系统疾病的一个基本重要的病理过程。神经炎症的主要贡献者是小胶质细胞，它构成了先天免疫反应系统。因此，准确识别小胶质细胞及其反应状态对于进一步了解中枢神经系统的病理生理学至关重要。许多染色技术已被用于观察啮齿动物和人类组织中的小胶质细胞，免疫染色是目前最常用的方法。从历史上看，小胶质细胞的鉴定主要基于形态结构，然而，最近越来越依赖于选择性抗原表达，并且已经确定了小胶质细胞特异性标志物，这提供了更高的确定性，即观察到的细胞实际上是小胶质细胞，而不是相似但不同的巨噬细胞。迄今为止，最具小胶质细胞特异性的标志物是 P2Y12 和 TMEM119。然而，其他与小胶质细胞相关的标志物也可用于显示激活状态、吞噬状态，并在纵向研究中用于神经影像学。总的来说，研究人员在区分中枢神经系统组织中的小胶质细胞时，需要注意各种染色剂和免疫标志物的小胶质细胞选择性问题，以避免误解。
