Thanos S, Kacza J, Seeger J, Mey J
Dept of Ophthalmology, University of Tübingen, School of Medicine, Germany.
Trends Neurosci. 1994 May;17(5):177-82. doi: 10.1016/0166-2236(94)90098-1.
The nature of the interactions between dying neurons and microglial cells within the developing and injured CNS remains controversial. A new technique for labelling microglial cells is available, which enables further studies of such interactions in a direct way. The value of the method relies on retrograde filling of neurons with vital fluorescent dye, subsequent degeneration of the neurons due to either naturally occurring cell death or as the result of axotomy, and phagocytotic removal of the fluorescent cell debris by microglial cells, which thus become identifiable. The fluorescent dye can be visualized in whole-mounted tissue or after sectioning. Photoconversion of the dye into electron-dense material permits examination of the microglial and dying ganglion-cell interactions at the ultrastructural level. This new principle of the function-dependent, selective fluorescent labelling of phagocytosing microglial cells, which might now be extended to other dyes and to other neurodegenerative models, promises to shed light onto the function of microglial cells within the brain.
在发育中和受损的中枢神经系统（CNS）内，垂死神经元与小胶质细胞之间相互作用的本质仍存在争议。一种用于标记小胶质细胞的新技术已经问世，这使得能够以直接的方式进一步研究此类相互作用。该方法的价值在于用活性荧光染料对神经元进行逆行填充，随后由于自然发生的细胞死亡或轴突切断导致神经元退化，以及小胶质细胞对荧光细胞碎片的吞噬清除，从而使小胶质细胞变得可识别。荧光染料可以在整装组织中或切片后可视化。将染料光转化为电子致密物质可以在超微结构水平上检查小胶质细胞与垂死神经节细胞之间的相互作用。这种功能依赖性、选择性荧光标记吞噬小胶质细胞的新原理，现在可能扩展到其他染料和其他神经退行性模型，有望揭示大脑中小胶质细胞的功能。
