Microglial landscape and signaling in spinal cord injury.

STUDY DESIGN

An integrated bioinformatics data study.

OBJECTIVES

This study uses bioinformatics analysis to map the microglial landscape, investigate key signaling pathways, and reveal the molecular mechanisms that facilitate SCI recovery.

SETTING

Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, School of Clinical Medicine, Tsinghua University.

METHODS

In this study, we performed an integrative bioinformatics analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), spatial transcriptomic (ST), and bulk RNA-seq datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), utilizing R packages (Seurat, DESeq2, limma, GSVA) and the Enrichr platform.

RESULTS

Single-cell and spatial transcriptomic profiling uncovered dynamic shifts in the microglial landscape post-SCI, characterized by the suppression of innate microglial populations alongside the expansion of reactive microglial subsets. Mechanistically, the TGFβ signaling pathway was identified as a critical regulator of innate microglial migration, promoting functional recovery after SCI. Conversely, reactive microglia exhibiting heightened Trem2 expression were found to exacerbate neuroinflammatory responses and drive neural cell death.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings collectively indicate that targeting the dual regulatory axis of Trem2-mediated neuroinflammation and TGFβ-driven repair mechanisms may offer a synergistic therapeutic strategy to enhance functional recovery following spinal cord injury.