Cited by 120Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsMultiple Sclerosis Research Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 71 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 54 of the 66 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Alzheimer's-associated PU.1 expression levels regulate microglial inflammatory response

Open access

Abstract

More than forty loci contribute to genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). These risk alleles are enriched in myeloid cell enhancers suggesting that microglia, the brain-resident macrophages, contribute to AD risk. We have previously identified SPI1/PU.1, a master regulator of myeloid cell development in the brain and periphery, as a genetic risk factor for AD. Higher expression of SPI1 is associated with increased risk for AD, while lower expression is protective. To investigate the molecular and cellular phenotypes associated with higher and lower expression of PU.1 in microglia, we used stable overexpression and knock-down of PU.1 in BV2, an immortalized mouse microglial cell line. Transcriptome analysis suggests that reduced PU.1 expression suppresses expression of homeostatic genes similar to the disease-associated microglia response to amyloid plaques in mouse models of AD. Moreover, PU.1 knock-down resulted in activation of protein translation, antioxidant action and cholesterol/lipid metabolism pathways with a concomitant decrease of pro-inflammatory gene expression. PU.1 overexpression upregulated and knock-down downregulated phagocytic uptake in BV2 cells independent of the nature of the engulfed material. However, cells with reduced PU.1 expression retained their ability to internalize myelin similar to control albeit with a delay, which aligns with their anti-inflammatory profile. Here we identified several microglial responses that are modulated by PU.1 expression levels and propose that risk association of PU.1 to AD is driven by increased pro-inflammatory response due to increased viability of cells under cytotoxic conditions. In contrast, low expression of PU.1 leads to increased cell death under cytotoxic conditions accompanied by reduced pro-inflammatory signaling that decreased A1 reactive astrocytes signature supporting the protective effect of SPI1 genotype in AD. These findings inform future in vivo validation studies and design of small molecule screens for therapeutic discovery in AD.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.nbd.2020.105217

Cites

65 of 65 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

53 Own result · 37 Own interpretation · 24 Partly supported · 16 Supported · 8 Own method · 4 No full text of the sources · 1 Supported so far · 1 No basis given · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 51 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 32
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 71
93 of 93
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The BV2 immortalized mouse microglial cell line is a valid model for microglial functions relevant to Alzheimer's disease.

    “we used stable overexpression and knock-down of PU.1 in BV2, an immortalized mouse microglial cell line.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Stable overexpression and knock-down of PU.1 in BV2 cells mimic the risk and protective SPI1 genotypes.

    “Using BV2 immortalized mouse microglial cells, we generated lines with stable overexpression and knock-down of PU.1 mimicking the risk and protective genotypes of SPI1.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In vitro microglial responses to PU.1 modulation reflect in vivo microglial biology and Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis.

    “To describe how PU.1 affects microglia and predict its role in vivo we compared pathways affected by PU.1 expression and the disease-associated microglia (DAM) (Keren-Shaul et al., 2017) that surround amyloid β (Aβ) plaques in AD and have been reported to be the protective population of microglia in patients’ brains.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The A1 reactive astrocyte signature induced by conditioned medium from PU.1 knock-down BV2 cells is relevant to the diseased brain milieu.

    “which was beneficial in reducing A1 reactive astrocytes signature relevant to diseased brain milieu.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    BV2 cells are a valid model of microglia for studying PU.1-dependent functions relevant to AD.

    “Here we have generated and characterized BV2 microglial cell lines with high and low PU.1 expression to examine changes in and microglial functions, that may be relevant to AD pathogenesis.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The in vitro phenotypes observed in BV2 cells with altered PU.1 expression are relevant to microglial behavior in the AD brain.

    “Altogether, PU.1 regulates a plethora of functions in microglial cells that we have evaluated in vitro to begin to describe microglial phenotypes important in supporting the brain milieu that is affected in AD.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Staurosporine- and rotenone-induced cell death in BV2 cells model apoptotic processes relevant to AD.

    “To elucidate the contribution of PU.1 to cell death under stimulated conditions we challenged BV2 cells with staurosporine, which induces caspase-dependent cell death.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    LPS and Aβ42 stimulation of BV2 cells model pro-inflammatory conditions in AD.

    “Next we tested the effect of Aβ42 and LPS on oxidative stress response in microglial cells as amyloid and inflammation trigger and exacerbate pathological changes in AD brain (Wendeln et al., 2018).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The achieved 2-fold overexpression and 75% knock-down of PU.1 are sufficient to model the range of PU.1 expression relevant to human AD risk.

    “Analysis of mRNA and protein expression of PU.1 showed that we were able to obtain 2-fold overexpression of PU.1 (OE cell line) and 75% knock-down of PU.1 (KD cell line) at the protein level (Supplementary Fig. S2a–c) relative to their respective controls (CTL line for overexpression and SCR line for knock-down).”
9 of 9

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?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 71 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 120

Metadata

Authors
Pimenova, A. A., Herbinet, M., Gupta, I., Machlovi, S. I., Bowles, K. R., Marcora, E., & Goate, A. M.
Affiliations
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN)
Corresponding author
Goate, Alison M.
Venue
Neurobiology of Disease
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-01
Volume
148
Pages
105217
ISSN
0969-9961 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3112899236
Cited by
120
References
71
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 7
FWCI
6.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neurobiology of Disease (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • BrightFocus Foundation
  • National Institute on Aging
  • JPB Foundation
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Clinical Neurology › Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, PU.1, microglia, microglial inflammation, genetic susceptibility loci, amyloid plaques, phagocytosis, mRNA translation, antioxidant response, microglial cell death, BV-2 cells
MeSH terms
Proto-Oncogene Protein Spi-1, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Cell Line, Inflammation, Lipopolysaccharides, Nitric Oxide, Peptide Fragments, Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Rotenone, Uncoupling Agents, Trans-Activators, Cytokines, Amyloid beta-Peptides, Apoptosis, Microglia, Staurosporine, Gene Expression Profiling, Mice, Gene Knockdown Techniques

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.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-07, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-07 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

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