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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 20, 2025

Obtaining Human Microglia from Adult Human Brain Tissue
09:41

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Brain region and sex differences in human microglia morphology and function.

Andrew R Yoblinski1, Jyoti Dubey1, Tyler Myers1

  • 1Department of Psychiatry and Translational Neuroscience Program, University of Pittsburgh Medical School, 450 Technology Drive Suite 223, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|May 27, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Microglia morphology in the healthy human brain shows sex-based differences and regional variations. This provides a crucial baseline for understanding brain diseases like schizophrenia.

Keywords:
DLPFCdendritic spinesphagocytosispostmortemsgACC

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cell Biology
  • Human Anatomy

Background:

  • Microglia, the brain's immune cells, have dynamic morphology linked to function.
  • Altered microglia function, including dendritic spine phagocytosis, is implicated in brain diseases such as schizophrenia.
  • A clear understanding of microglia morphology in the non-diseased brain is essential for studying neuropathology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To establish a detailed morphological baseline of microglia in the healthy human prefrontal cortex.
  • To investigate potential sex-based and regional differences in microglia structure and function.
  • To provide a benchmark for future studies on microglia in diseased brains.

Main Methods:

  • Immunostaining and confocal microscopy of over 1,300 microglia from postmortem human prefrontal cortex.
  • 3D tracing of microglia using Neurolucida 360 software.
  • Quantification of microglia morphology and interactions with neuronal dendritic spines.

Main Results:

  • Male subjects showed more complex microglial branching than female subjects.
  • Microglia in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) exhibited more complex branching and rounder somas than those in the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC).
  • sgACC microglia had a lower proportion of dendritic spine phagocytosis compared to DLPFC microglia.

Conclusions:

  • Detailed characterization of microglia morphology and function in the healthy brain.
  • Identified sex-specific and regional variations in microglia structure within the human prefrontal cortex.
  • Established a normative dataset crucial for interpreting microglial alterations in psychiatric and neurologic disorders.