Dynamics of microglial proliferation in prion disease

Gomez-Nicola, Diego and Perry, V. Hugh , CNS Inflammation Group (2011) Dynamics of microglial proliferation in prion disease. British Neuroscience Association 21st Biennial Meeting, Harrogate, United Kingdom. 16 - 19 Apr 2011.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)

Abstract

An important aspect of chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s or prion disease, is the generation of an innate inflammatory reaction within the central nervous system (CNS). Microglial and astroglial cells play a leading role in the development and maintenance of this inflammatory reaction, showing enhanced proliferation and morphological activation.
In this work, using a tractable laboratory model of neurodegeneration (ME7 murine model of prion disease), we studied the time-course of microglial and astrocyte proliferative responses by immunohistochemical means. Our results show that resident microglial cells have an increased proliferation rate during the development of the disease, leading to a significant increase in the population, when compared with the control group. However, the astroglial response is mainly characterized by a morphological and functional change, rather than an increase in proliferation. Moreover, we observed that cell proliferation is differentially regulated in different regions of the CNS, pointing to a heterogeneous development of the pathology.
Our results demonstrate that microglial proliferation is an important feature during the development of neurodegenerative diseases, with direct implications on the generation of the inflammatory scene.

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