Sexual dimorphism of microglia and synapses during mouse postnatal development
Open accessAbstract
Microglia participate in synapse remodeling in the cortex and hippocampus during mouse postnatal development. Although sex differences in microglia activity during embryonic development have been reported in these regions, it remains unexplored whether microglia show sexually dimorphic features during the early postnatal period, a critical window for synapse formation and maturation. Here, we investigated morphological and functional features of microglia across early postnatal development as well as morphological features of both pre‐ and postsynaptic neuronal compartments in the mouse hippocampus. We found a sex‐dependent shift in microglia volume and phagocytic capacity across the first four postnatal weeks. Measurements of synaptic features revealed sex differences in the density of synaptic spines and boutons during the second postnatal week. These data are consistent with a precocious development of both microglia and synapses in the female brain. We further hypothesize that this bias may contribute to sex‐specific brain wiring. © 2017 The Authors. Developmental Neurobiology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 78: 618–626, 2018
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Microglia are highly affected by sex hormones.
“Microglia, which are the resident innate immune cells of the CNS, are highly affected by sex hormones [14, 16–20].”
From Sex chromosomes and sex hormones differently shape microglial properties during normal physiological conditions in the adult mouse hippocampus (2025) · cites this paper as [20]
The Introduction identifies microglia as resident immune cells of the brain, and the Results report sex differences in their development. Neither those passages nor the passages retrieved for “sex hormones” and “hormone” establish that sex hormones highly affect microglia; the paper does not test a hormonal effect. Our copy provides section labels but no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Immune-Neurovascular Interactions in Experimental Perinatal and Childhood Arterial Ischemic Stroke
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- Authors
- Weinhard, L., Neniskyte, U., Vadisiute, A., di Bartolomei, G., Aygün, N., Riviere, L., Zonfrillo, F., Dymecki, S., & Gross, C.
- Affiliations
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (IT)
- Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Monterotondo Italy
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gross, Cornelius
- Venue
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-01-04
- Volume
- 78
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 618-626
- ISSN
- 1932-8451 (ISSN-L)
- 1932-846X
- PMC
- PMC6001780
- OpenAlex
- W2775395545
- Cited by
- 107
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 7
- FWCI
- 5.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Developmental Neurobiology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- European Union Seventh Framework Programme (327409)
- National Institutes of Health (R01 DA034022)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
- Keywords
- microglia, sexual dimorphism, sex differences, postnatal development, synaptogenesis, synaptic spines, synaptic boutons, hippocampus, phagocytic capacity, microglial morphology
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Female, Hippocampus, Male, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Transgenic, Phagocytosis, Sex Characteristics, Synapses, Microglia, Dendritic Spines
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