TY - JOUR
T1 - Microglial heterogeneity in chronic pain
AU - Sideris-Lampretsas, George
AU - Malcangio, Marzia
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge funds from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme “TOBeATPAIN” under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 764860.
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge funds from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme ?TOBeATPAIN? under the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie grant agreement No 764860. We specially thank Ana Rita Alves da Silva for providing the image showing microgliosis in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord in animals with nerve injury (Fig. 2B).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - In this review, we report existing preclinical evidence on how the CNS compartment as well as sex affect microglia functions in health. We highlight that recent advances in transcriptomics analyses have led to thorough characterization of disease-associated microglial states in mice and humans. We then consider the specific scenario of peripheral nerve or tissue injury which induce expression of a specific subset of genes in microglia in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. We suggest the intriguing possibility that future studies may disclose the existence of a unique microglia transcriptional profile that is associated with chronic pain conditions. We also collect evidence that microglial activation in pain-related areas of the brain can be observed in models of neuropathic pain in agreement with recent neuroimaging studies in chronic pain patients. Based on the evidence discussed here, we predict that future studies on the neuroimmune interactions in chronic pain should complement our current understanding of microglia functions, but also adventure in using novel approaches such as scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, CYTOF and transmission electron microscopy to provide a more complete characterization of the function, transcriptome and structure of microglia in chronic pain.
AB - In this review, we report existing preclinical evidence on how the CNS compartment as well as sex affect microglia functions in health. We highlight that recent advances in transcriptomics analyses have led to thorough characterization of disease-associated microglial states in mice and humans. We then consider the specific scenario of peripheral nerve or tissue injury which induce expression of a specific subset of genes in microglia in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. We suggest the intriguing possibility that future studies may disclose the existence of a unique microglia transcriptional profile that is associated with chronic pain conditions. We also collect evidence that microglial activation in pain-related areas of the brain can be observed in models of neuropathic pain in agreement with recent neuroimaging studies in chronic pain patients. Based on the evidence discussed here, we predict that future studies on the neuroimmune interactions in chronic pain should complement our current understanding of microglia functions, but also adventure in using novel approaches such as scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, CYTOF and transmission electron microscopy to provide a more complete characterization of the function, transcriptome and structure of microglia in chronic pain.
KW - Chronic pain
KW - Microglia
KW - Neuroinflammation
KW - Neuropathic pain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110154057&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.06.005
DO - 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.06.005
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34139287
AN - SCOPUS:85110154057
SN - 0889-1591
VL - 96
SP - 279
EP - 289
JO - Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
JF - Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
ER -