Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Jan:52:156-164.
doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.11.003. Epub 2018 Nov 24.

Sexual differentiation of microglia

Alessandro Villa  1 , Sara Della Torre  1 , Adriana Maggi  2
Affiliations
Free article
Review

Sexual differentiation of microglia

Alessandro Villa et al. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2019 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

Sex plays a role in the incidence and outcome of neurological illnesses, also influencing the response to treatments. Despite sexual differentiation of the brain has been extensively investigated, the study of sex differences in microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, has been largely neglected until recently. To fulfill this gap, our laboratory developed several tools, including cellular and animal models, which bolstered in-depth studies on sexual differentiation of microglia and its impact on brain physiology, as well as on the onset and progression of neurological disorders. Here, we summarize the current status of knowledge on the sex-dependent function of microglia, and report recent evidence linking these cells to the sexual bias in the susceptibility to neurological brain diseases.

Keywords: Adult brain; Development; Neurodegeneration; Neuroinflammation; Sexual differentiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types