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Microglia states and nomenclature: A field at its crossroads

  • Rosa C. Paolicelli*
  • , Amanda Sierra*
  • , Beth Stevens*
  • , Marie-Eve Tremblay*
  • , Adriano Aguzzi
  • , Bahareh Ajami
  • , Ido Amit
  • , Etienne Audinat
  • , Ingo Bechmann
  • , Mariko Bennett
  • , Frederick Bennett
  • , Alain Bessis
  • , Knut Biber
  • , Staci Bilbo
  • , Mathew Blurton-Jones
  • , Erik Boddeke
  • , Dora Brites
  • , Bert Brône
  • , Guy C. Brown
  • , Oleg Butovsky
  • Monica J. Carson, Bernardo Castellano, Marco Colonna, Sally A. Cowley, Colm Cunningham, Dimitrios Davalos, Philip L. de Jager, Bart de Strooper, Adam Denes, Bart J. L. Eggen, Ukpong Eyo, Elena Galea, Sonia Garel, Florent Ginhoux, Christopher K. Glass, Ozgun Gokce, Diego Gomez-Nicola, Berta González, Siamon Gordon, Manuel B. Graeber, Andrew D. Greenhalgh, Pierre Gressens, Melanie Greter, David H. Gutmann, Christian Haass, Michael T. Heneka, Frank L. Heppner, Soyon Hong, David A. Hume, Steffen Jung, Helmut Kettenmann, Jonathan Kipnis, Ryuta Koyama, Greg Lemke, Marina Lynch, Ania Majewska, Marzia Malcangio, Tarja Malm, Renzo Mancuso, Takahiro Masuda, Michela Matteoli, Barry W. McColl, Veronique E. Miron, Anna Victoria Molofsky, Michelle Monje, Eva Mracsko, Agnes Nadjar, Jonas J. Neher, Urte Neniskyte, Harald Neumann, Mami Noda, Bo Peng, Francesca Peri, V. Hugh Perry, Phillip G. Popovich, Clare Pridans, Josef Priller, Marco Prinz, Davide Ragozzino, Richard M. Ransohoff, Michael W. Salter, Anne Schaefer, Dorothy P. Schafer, Michal Schwartz, Mikael Simons, Cody J. Smith, Wolfgang J. Streit, Tuan Leng Tay, Li-Huei Tsai, Alexei Verkhratsky, Rommy von Bernhardi, Hiroaki Wake, Valérie Wittamer, Susanne A. Wolf, Long-Jun Wu, Tony Wyss-Coray
*Corresponding author for this work
  • University of Lausanne
  • Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience
  • University of the Basque Country
  • Basque Foundation for Science
  • Broad Institute
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Harvard University
  • Université Laval
  • McGill University
  • University of Victoria BC
  • St Paul's Hospital
  • University of Zurich
  • Oregon Health and Science University
  • Weizmann Institute of Science
  • Université de Montpellier
  • Leipzig University
  • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • École normale supérieure
  • AbbVie
  • Duke University
  • University California Irvine
  • University of Groningen
  • University of Lisbon
  • Hasselt University
  • University of Cambridge
  • Harvard Medical School
  • University of California at Riverside
  • Fisiología e Inmunología
  • Autonomous University of Barcelona
  • Washington University St. Louis
  • University of Oxford
  • Trinity College Dublin
  • Cleveland Clinic Foundation
  • Case Western Reserve University
  • Columbia University Medical Center
  • University College London
  • Flanders Institute for Biotechnology
  • Institute of Experimental Medicine
  • University of Virginia
  • ICREA
  • Collège de France
  • Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore
  • University of California at San Diego
  • Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
  • University of Southampton
  • Chang Gung University
  • Faculty of Medicine and Health
  • University of Manchester
  • Université Paris Cité
  • German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
  • Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Germany
  • University of Luxembourg
  • Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
  • University of Queensland
  • Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association
  • Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology
  • The University of Tokyo
  • Salk Institute for Biological Studies
  • University of Rochester
  • King's College London
  • University of Eastern Finland
  • CAPRI-University of Antwerp
  • Kyushu University
  • Humanitas University
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of California San Francisco
  • Stanford University Medical Center
  • F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG
  • Neurocentre Magendie
  • Institut universitaire de France
  • University of Tübingen
  • Vilnius University
  • University Hospital of Bonn
  • Xi'an Jiaotong University
  • Fudan University
  • Ohio State University
  • Technical University of Munich
  • University of Freiburg
  • Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
  • University of Rome La Sapienza
  • IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia - Roma
  • Third Rock Ventures
  • University of Toronto
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
  • University of Massachusetts Medical School
  • University of Notre Dame
  • University of Florida
  • Boston University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Universidad San Sebastián
  • Nagoya University
  • Université libre de Bruxelles
  • Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Microglial research has advanced considerably in recent decades yet has been constrained by a rolling series of dichotomies such as “resting versus activated” and “M1 versus M2.” This dualistic classification of good or bad microglia is inconsistent with the wide repertoire of microglial states and functions in development, plasticity, aging, and diseases that were elucidated in recent years. New designations continuously arising in an attempt to describe the different microglial states, notably defined using transcriptomics and proteomics, may easily lead to a misleading, although unintentional, coupling of categories and functions. To address these issues, we assembled a group of multidisciplinary experts to discuss our current understanding of microglial states as a dynamic concept and the importance of addressing microglial function. Here, we provide a conceptual framework and recommendations on the use of microglial nomenclature for researchers, reviewers, and editors, which will serve as the foundations for a future white paper.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3458-3483
Number of pages26
JournalNeuron
Volume110
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Nov 2022

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