Cited by 4,396Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsTraumatic Brain Injury and Neurovascular DisturbancesNeurological Disease Mechanisms and Treatments

Microglia: a sensor for pathological events in the CNS

Kreutzberg, Georg W·1996·Trends in Neurosciences

Abstract

The most characteristic feature of microglial cells is their rapid activation in response to even minor pathological changes in the CNS. Microglia activation is a key factor in the defence of the neural parenchyma against infectious diseases, inflammation, trauma, ischaemia, brain tumours and neurodegeneration. Microglia activation occurs as a graded response in vivo. The transformation of microglia into potentially cytotoxic cells is under strict control and occurs mainly in response to neuronal or terminal degeneration, or both. Activated microglia are mainly scavenger cells but also perform various other functions in tissue repair and neural regeneration. They form a network of immune alert resident macrophages with a capacity for immune surveillance and control. Activated microglia can destroy invading micro-organisms, remove potentially deleterious debris, promote tissue repair by secreting growth factors and thus facilitate the return to tissue homeostasis. An understanding of intercellular signalling pathways for microglia proliferation and activation could form a rational basis for targeted intervention on glial reactions to injuries in the CNS.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/0166-2236(96)10049-7

Cites

67 of 67 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Changes in microglial density, morphology, and transcriptional state have been observed in postmortem brain tissue of patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

    “For decades, changes in microglial density, morphology, and transcriptional state have been observed in postmortem brain tissue of patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders17–21.”
  • Microglia become activated under brain injury and immunological stimuli and undergo alterations from a resting state to an active state.

    “Microglia become activated under brain injury and immunological stimuli (Kreutzberg, 1996) and undergo several alterations from a “resting state” to an active state (Hanisch and Kettenmann, 2007; Kettenmann et al., 2011).”

    From The impact of microglial activation on blood-brain barrier in brain diseases (2014) · cites this paper as Kreutzberg, 1996

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kreutzberg, G. W.
Affiliations
Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (DE)
Corresponding author
Kreutzberg, Georg W
Venue
Trends in Neurosciences
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1996-08
Volume
19
Issue
8
Pages
312-318
ISSN
0166-2236 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2109759840
Cited by
4,396
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 37 · 2025: 63 · 2024: 71 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 144 · 2020: 159 · 2019: 126 · 2018: 158 · 2017: 167 · 2016: 161 · 2015: 169 · 2014: 217 · 2013: 216 · 2012: 227
FWCI
11.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Trends in Neurosciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurovascular Disturbances
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neurological Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
Keywords
microglia, microglial activation, CNS pathology, neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, brain injury, immune surveillance, tissue repair, nerve regeneration, intercellular communication, glial reaction, neuroprotection
MeSH terms
Animals, Central Nervous System, Central Nervous System Diseases, Humans, Microglia

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review