Microglia are a type of cell found in the brain and spinal cord, and act as an immune defense in the central nervous system. They constantly scavenge the the nervous system for damaged neurons, plaques, and infectious agents. It is well-known about the important role microglia play in immune responses to brain injury, and how they become very active when the nervous system is threatened.
However, less is known about what microglia do when there is no threat present, so a study was done to further explore the roles of microglia under non-pathological conditions. The researchers used electron microscopy and other techniques to observe the interaction between inactive microglia and synaptic elements in the visual cortex of mice, and how microglia behaved in response to limited light exposure. They found that there were surprising changes in microglial behavior during alterations in visual experience, which could mean that microglia may participate in the modification or elimination of synaptic structures, and therefore may actively contribute to learning and memory in the healthy brain.
This seems very interesting. I was aware that microglia helped the immune system and it's defenses and protected the nervous system. I used to be a biology major and we covered microglia briefly, but nothing too in depth. This is really neat that they are doing more research on it to determine what it does when there is no damage. I hope that continue to do research so that they may be able to find more roles that microglia play during no damage besides its contribution to learning and memory.
ReplyDeleteWoah- all of this is somewhat foreign to me as I am getting degrees in social sciences. The microglia are obviously an important part of life for regeneration after damage, but this is definitely a interesting thought.. what do they do while there is no damage control to attend to.
ReplyDeleteI would be shocked to read anything other than the fact that our body uses them to help learning and memory. I wonder how many other parts of the body are also positively affected by these cells. Could they also help regenerative muscle growth? Perhaps heighten sensory input?
It is strange to read about research in a field I am not really involved with. It takes me a few seconds to even figure out how to pronounce some of the words here, and I'm sure this is dumbed down quite a bit from the original article. This research is very interesting and it sounds like this new discovery can lead to even more findings about microglia.
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