Department of Molecular and System Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, 812-8582 Fukuoka, Japan.
J Biochem. 2023 Mar 7;173(3):139-143. doi: 10.1093/jb/mvac093.
The central nervous system (CNS) is a highly complex collection of neurons with a variety of stromal cells, such as glia cells, immune cells, vascular cells and fibroblasts. Microglia are a resident macrophage and a type of glial cells located in the parenchyma of the CNS and play a pivotal role in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. They are early responders to the abnormality of the CNS, leading to the adaptation of their phenotypes by virtue of their plasticity, after which they give an impact on neuronal functions. Besides microglia, there are anatomically and phenotypically distinct macrophage populations at the border of the CNS, such as meninge, perivascular space and choroid plexus, where they show distinct morphology and gene expression profiles when compared with microglia. This review will summarize the recent advance in our knowledge regarding their heterogeneity, plasticity, ontogenetic relationship of these CNS-resident macrophage populations.
中枢神经系统（CNS）是一个高度复杂的神经元集合，其中包含多种基质细胞，如神经胶质细胞、免疫细胞、血管细胞和成纤维细胞。小胶质细胞是驻留巨噬细胞和一种位于中枢神经系统实质中的神经胶质细胞，在维持组织内稳态方面发挥着关键作用。它们是中枢神经系统异常的早期反应者，通过其可塑性导致其表型的适应，之后对神经元功能产生影响。除了小胶质细胞，中枢神经系统边界还存在解剖和表型上不同的巨噬细胞群体，如脑膜、血管周围间隙和脉络丛，与小胶质细胞相比，它们具有独特的形态和基因表达谱。本综述将总结有关这些中枢神经系统驻留巨噬细胞群体的异质性、可塑性和发生学关系的最新研究进展。
