Fascinating New Research On Microglia

Posted: 9/4/2018

Trigger

Just read The brain's tiny thrill-seekers.

Here is the original press release of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine: The brain’s tiny thrill-seekers Microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, differ in male and female mice. MDC researchers report on the sex-specific features in Cell Reports. Their findings could change how we treat neurological diseases.

Here is the scientific paper: Transcriptional and Translational Differences of Microglia from Male and Female Brains. Here is the link to the PDF file.

The headline of this article is very poorly chosen as if sensationalism or feminism were driving it. Presuming, the findings of this new research will be confirmed.

“Microglia are the primary immune cells of the central nervous system [in particular, the brain], similar to peripheral macrophages.” (Wikipedia)

Significance

Caveat, I am not an expert!

1. Brain differences between males and female mice exist. The researchers actually found a surprising variety of differences (e.g. size of cells, activation & responses, protein regulation etc.). Confirmation of human differences pending
2. These findings could lead to a better understanding why the life expectancy between males and females are different for biological reasons
3. Better treatments for sex-specific differences in psychiatric and neurological disorders
4. One day, perhaps the human microglia cells of males and females will be merged to get the best of both worlds