Microglia states and nomenclature: A field at its crossroads

Abstract

Microglial research has advanced considerably in recent decades yet has been constrained by a rolling series of dichotomies such as "resting versus activated" and "M1 versus M2." This dualistic classification of good or bad microglia is inconsistent with the wide repertoire of microglial states and functions in development, plasticity, aging, and diseases that were elucidated in recent years. New designations continuously arising in an attempt to describe the different microglial states, notably defined using transcriptomics and proteomics, may easily lead to a misleading, although unintentional, coupling of categories and functions. To address these issues, we assembled a group of multidisciplinary experts to discuss our current understanding of microglial states as a dynamic concept and the importance of addressing microglial function. Here, we provide a conceptual framework and recommendations on the use of microglial nomenclature for researchers, reviewers, and editors, which will serve as the foundations for a future white paper.

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Affiliated Institutions

• Kyushu University JP
• Harvard University US
• University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School US
• University of Virginia US
• Vilnius University LT
• UK Dementia Research Institute GB
• University of Groningen NL
• Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin DE
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute US
• Duke University US
• Inmunal (Spain) ES
• Université de Montpellier FR
• University of California, Irvine US
• The Queen's Medical Research Institute GB
• The University of Queensland AU
• University of Antwerp BE
• Allen Institute for Brain Science US
• Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine US
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology US
• University Hospital Bonn DE
• Singapore Immunology Network SG
• Columbia University US
• University of Freiburg DE
• Fondazione Santa Lucia IT
• Chang Gung University TW
• The University of Sydney AU
• Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging GB
• Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg DE
• KU Leuven BE
• Fudan University CN
• Boston Children's Hospital US
• State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology
• Université Libre de Bruxelles BE
• University of Zurich CH
• University of Cambridge GB
• University of Luxembourg LU
• Case Western Reserve University US
• National Research Council IT
• University of Oxford GB
• Boston University US
• University Medical Center Groningen NL
• University of Lisbon PT
• Collège de France FR
• University of California, Riverside US
• Hospital for Sick Children CA
• University of Southampton GB
• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia US
• Southampton General Hospital GB
• Max Delbrück Center DE
• University of Eastern Finland FI
• Stanford University US
• Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle FR
• Institut de Biologie de l'École Normale Supérieure FR
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ES
• Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats ES
• Third Dimension Technologies (United States) US
• University of California, San Diego US
• Sapienza University of Rome IT
• Université de Bordeaux FR
• San Sebastián University CL
• The University of Tokyo JP
• University of California, San Francisco US
• University of Lausanne CH
• University of Notre Dame US
• Columbia University Irving Medical Center US
• Université Paris Cité FR
• Mater Research AU
• VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology BE
• Trinity College Dublin IE
• Agency for Science, Technology and Research SG
• University of Manchester GB
• King's College London GB
• Hasselt University BE
• University College London GB
• Université Laval CA
• University of Rochester US
• University of Bonn DE
• University of Toronto CA
• University of Pennsylvania US
• Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research DE
• Broad Institute US
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai US
• Leipzig University DE
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München DE
• Technical University of Munich DE
• Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology DE
• University of Victoria CA
• University of Edinburgh GB
• Ikerbasque ES
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FR
• Chinese Academy of Sciences CN
• Centre for Inflammation Research GB
• Philadelphia University US
• Nagoya University JP
• University of Florida US
• McGill University CA
• Oregon Health & Science University US
• Mayo Clinic in Arizona US
• Brigham and Women's Hospital US
• University of Tübingen DE
• AbbVie (Germany) DE
• Neuropsychiatric Research Institute US
• Institut Universitaire de France FR
• MRC Centre for Reproductive Health GB
• University of British Columbia CA
• Huashan Hospital CN
• Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing DE
• IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital IT
• Weizmann Institute of Science IL
• German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases DE
• Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie BE
• NeuroDiderot
• University of the Basque Country ES
• Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience ES
• Inserm FR
• Neurocentre Magendie FR
• HUN-REN Institute of Experimental Medicine HU
• Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology CN
• The Ohio State University US
• Salk Institute for Biological Studies US
• Xi'an Jiaotong University CN
• Washington University in St. Louis US
• Roche (Switzerland) CH

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