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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Single-cell Profiling of Developing and Mature Retinal Neurons
Published on: April 19, 2012
Profiling Microglia through Single-Cell RNA Sequencing over the Course of Development, Aging, and Disease
Spyros Pettas1, Korina Karagianni1, Eirini Kanata2
1Department of Genetics, Development, and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Abstract:
Microglia are macrophages present in the brain that function as the primary and most important source of immune response in the central nervous system (CNS). Regardless of their multitasking role, our knowledge regarding their molecular heterogeneity is limited; due to technical restrictions, it is only possible to measure gene expression in cell populations, not individual cells, with the results reflecting average mRNA levels. Therefore, recent scientific approaches have focused on single-cell techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), a powerful technique that enables the delineation of transcriptomic cell-to-cell differences, revealing subpopulations with distinct molecular and functional characteristics. Here, we summarize recent studies that focused on transcriptomic microglial subpopulation clustering and classify them into three distinct groups based on age, spatial distribution, and disease. Additionally, we cross-compare populations from different studies to identify expressional and functional overlaps between them.

