PUBLICATION

Identification of a conserved and acute neurodegeneration-specific microglial transcriptome in the zebrafish

Authors
Oosterhof, N., Holtman, I.R., Kuil, L.E., van der Linde, H.C., Boddeke, E.W., Eggen, B.J., van Ham, T.J.
ID
ZDB-PUB-161025-35
Date
2017
Source
Glia   65(1): 138-149 (Journal)
Registered Authors
van Ham, Tjakko
Keywords
RNA sequencing, microglia, neuronal cell death, proliferation, transcriptome, zebrafish
Datasets
GEO:GSE86921
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Brain/cytology
  • Brain/metabolism
  • Cell Death
  • Gene Expression Profiling/methods
  • Immunohistochemistry/methods
  • Macrophages/cytology
  • Macrophages/metabolism
  • Microglia/cytology*
  • Microglia/metabolism*
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA/methods
  • Transcriptome/genetics*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
27757989 Full text @ Glia
Abstract
Microglia are brain resident macrophages important for brain development, connectivity, homeostasis and disease. However, it is still largely unclear how microglia functions and their identity are regulated at the molecular level. Although recent transcriptomic studies have identified genes specifically expressed in microglia, the function of most of these genes in microglia is still unknown. Here, we performed RNA sequencing on microglia acutely isolated from healthy and neurodegenerative zebrafish brains. We found that a large fraction of the mouse microglial signature is conserved in the zebrafish, corroborating the use of zebrafish to help understand microglial genetics in mammals in addition to studying basic microglia biology. Second, our transcriptome analysis of microglia following neuronal ablation suggested primarily a proliferative response of microglia, which we confirmed by immunohistochemistry and in vivo imaging. Together with the recent improvements in genome editing technology in zebrafish, these data offer opportunities to facilitate functional genetic research on microglia in vivo in the healthy as well as in the diseased brain.
Genes / Markers
Figures
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Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping