Microglia: Phagocytosing to Clear, Sculpt, and Eliminate

Soyon Hong; Beth Stevens

doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2016.07.006

Microglia: Phagocytosing to Clear, Sculpt, and Eliminate

Dev Cell. 2016 Jul 25;38(2):126-8. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2016.07.006.

Authors

Soyon Hong¹, Beth Stevens²

Affiliations

¹ F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
² F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Electronic address: beth.stevens@childrens.harvard.edu.

PMID: 27459063
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2016.07.006

Abstract

Microglia are the primary phagocytes of the central nervous system. They eliminate excess functional connections between neurons to sculpt neuronal circuits during development and throughout adulthood. Understanding how microglia recognize and prune synapses during development is providing insight into synapse loss and dysfunction in disease.

MeSH terms

Animals
Brain / physiology*
Humans
Microglia / physiology*
Neurons / physiology*
Phagocytosis / physiology*
Synapses / physiology*