Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), have an important role in the maintenance and protection of the CNS. Microglia exist in various states depending on their environment and pathological conditions, ranging from activating to a potent inflammatory state to that of an inflammation-resolving state. Although advances in single-cell sequencing technologies have deepened our understanding of microglia heterogeneity, they have also identified critical differences in gene expression between human and mouse microglia. Similarly, studies have documented several differences between in vitro and in vivo mouse microglia. To further characterize differences between microglia models, a new study used high-resolution quantitative mass spectrometry to characterize the proteome of six experimental systems commonly used to model human microglia in disease contexts. Proteomic analysis of ex vivo human microglia, ex vivo and in vitro cultured mouse microglia, in vitro cultured and xenografted human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived microglia, and the BV2 cell line revealed fundamental differences in proteome compositions, which should be considered when choosing a model system to study human microglia.

Original reference: Lloyd, A.F. et al. Cell Rep. 43, 114908 (2024)

小胶质细胞是中枢神经系统 （CNS） 的常驻免疫细胞，在维持和保护 CNS 方面起着重要作用。小胶质细胞根据其环境和病理状况以各种状态存在，从激活到强效炎症状态再到炎症消解状态。尽管单细胞测序技术的进步加深了我们对小胶质细胞异质性的理解，但它们也发现了人和小鼠小胶质细胞之间基因表达的关键差异。同样，研究记录了体外和体内小鼠小胶质细胞之间的几个差异。为了进一步表征小胶质细胞模型之间的差异，一项新研究使用高分辨率定量质谱法来表征通常用于在疾病环境中模拟人类小胶质细胞的六个实验系统的蛋白质组。离体人小胶质细胞、离体和体外培养的小鼠小胶质细胞、体外培养和异种移植的人胚胎干细胞 （hESC） 衍生的小胶质细胞以及 BV2 细胞系的蛋白质组学分析揭示了蛋白质组组成的根本差异，在选择模型系统研究人小胶质细胞时应考虑这一点。

原始参考资料：Lloyd， A.F. 等人。细胞代表43， 114908 （2024）