Fifty Shades of Microglia

In a recent study, Masuda and colleagues (Nature 2019;566:388-392) used single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile microglia across different anatomical compartments, developmental stages, and types of brain pathology in mice. Moreover, the authors performed a novel transcriptomic characterization of microglia from multiple sclerosis patients and identified phenotypically conserved microglial subsets between species. These findings, together with seminal prior results from various groups, provide valuable insights into the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of microglia during brain development and disease.