Cited by 1,129Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsSingle-cell and spatial transcriptomicsNeurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 54 of the 54 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 39 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Developmental Heterogeneity of Microglia and Brain Myeloid Cells Revealed by Deep Single-Cell RNA Sequencing

Open access

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Microglia are increasingly recognized for their major contributions during brain development and neurodegenerative disease. It is currently unknown whether these functions are carried out by subsets of microglia during different stages of development and adulthood or within specific brain regions. Here, we performed deep single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of microglia and related myeloid cells sorted from various regions of embryonic, early postnatal, and adult mouse brains. We found that the majority of adult microglia expressing homeostatic genes are remarkably similar in transcriptomes, regardless of brain region. By contrast, early postnatal microglia are more heterogeneous. We discovered a proliferative-region-associated microglia (PAM) subset, mainly found in developing white matter, that shares a characteristic gene signature with degenerative disease-associated microglia (DAM). Such PAM have amoeboid morphology, are metabolically active, and phagocytose newly formed oligodendrocytes. This scRNA-seq atlas will be a valuable resource for dissecting innate immune functions in health and disease.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Deep single-cell RNA sequencing of 1,816 mouse brain myeloid cells across embryonic, early postnatal, and adult stages shows that adult homeostatic microglia are transcriptionally similar across brain regions, whereas early postnatal microglia are more heterogeneous. The authors identify proliferative region-associated microglia (PAM), a transient white-matter subset that shares a gene signature with degenerative disease-associated microglia, is TREM2/APOE-independent, and phagocytoses newly formed oligodendrocytes.

Key findings

  • Adult homeostatic microglia show limited regional transcriptomic heterogeneity: fewer than 20 genes were differentially expressed in cluster 0 adult microglia between regions (FDR < 0.05), and bulk RNA-seq of TMEM119+ microglia from cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, and striatum was highly correlated (R > 0.99) with no differentially expressed genes between regions (FDR < 0.05).
  • Early postnatal microglia are more heterogeneous; after cell cycle regression, P7 microglia resolved into three clusters, including P7-C1/PAM, which expressed DAM-associated genes such as Spp1, Gpnmb, Clec7a, Lpl, Cd9, Cd63, Lgals3, Fabp5, Itgax, Apoe, and Tyrobp.
  • PAM appeared mainly in developing corpus callosum and cerebellar white matter, peaked around P7, were amoeboid, and phagocytosed newly formed oligodendrocytes; PAM were still present in P7 Trem2−/− or Apoe−/− white matter, unlike DAM.
  • Cell cycle pseudotime identified 315 periodically expressed genes for P7-C0 and 347 for P7-C1, with 183 overlapping genes; many newly identified genes were not previously described as periodically expressed.

Methods

  • Smart-seq2 scRNA-seq was performed on index-sorted innate immune cells from mouse brain at E14.5, P7, and P60; P7 and P60 cells were isolated from cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, striatum, olfactory bulb, and choroid plexus. In total, 1,922 cells were sequenced to at least 1 million raw reads per cell, and 1,816 cells (94.5%) passed QC: 142 E14.5, 978 P7, and 696 P60 cells.
  • Unsupervised Seurat clustering yielded 15 clusters, including 7 microglia clusters; analyses included differential expression, cell cycle regression, pseudotime reconstruction, gene network construction, and bulk RNA-seq of TMEM119+ adult microglia.
  • Validation used RNAscope, immunohistochemistry, FACS, a pH-sensitive bead phagocytosis assay on acute brain slices, and Trem2−/− and Apoe−/− mice.

Limitations

  • The paper states that additional brain regions beyond the 4 major regions tested may uncover transcriptomic differences, and that microglial heterogeneity may also be represented by electrophysiological, epigenetic, or functional measurements; future work is needed to distinguish whether PAM are transcriptionally pre-disposed to phagocytosis or represent a transient phenotypic conversion.
  • Evident from the text: all experiments used male mice; the IEG+ microglia cluster is likely an experimental artifact from cell extraction/sorting, since Fos/Egr1 were not detected in adult microglia on tissue sections.
  • Evident from the text: PAM phagocytosis evidence is largely histological and correlative, although the slice phagocytosis assay supports preferential phagocytic capacity in corpus callosum and cerebellar white matter.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.12.006

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

0 of 39 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged

Show all 48 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 47
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 24
65 of 65
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Little is known about the molecular heterogeneity of microglia under physiological conditions, especially during development.

    “Despite the importance of these multitasking cells, little is known about their molecular heterogeneity under physiological conditions and especially during development when they perform many critical non-immune functions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    It is unclear whether there are molecularly defined subtypes of microglia in the adult brain and how they are distributed across brain regions.

    “it remains unclear whether there are molecularly defined subtypes of microglia in the adult brain and, if so, how they are distributed across brain regions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    How extensive microglial heterogeneity is, and what it does in the developing and mature healthy brain, is still unclear.

    “The extent of microglial heterogeneity and its functional significance in the developing and mature homeostatic brain, however, remains elusive.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Professional phagocytes must remove dying or dead cells to keep tissue homeostasis.

    “Dying or dead cells need to be cleared away by professional phagocytes in order to maintain tissue homeostasis.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    During development of multicellular organisms, excess cells are commonly produced and then removed by controlled apoptosis.

    “Overproduction of cells, balanced by controlled apoptosis, is a common theme during development of multicellular organisms, although the biological significance behind this is often unknown.”
5 of 5

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?

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 54 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 201–300 of 999

Metadata

Authors
Li, Q., Cheng, Z., Zhou, L., Darmanis, S., Neff, N. F., Okamoto, J., Gulati, G., Bennett, M. L., Sun, L. O., Clarke, L. E., Marschallinger, J., Yu, G., Quake, S. R., Wyss-Coray, T., & Barres, B. A.
Affiliations
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Virginia Tech (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
Corresponding author
Li, Qingyun
Venue
Neuron
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-01
Volume
101
Issue
2
Pages
207-223.e10
ISSN
0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2949996247
Cited by
1,129
References
54
Citations by year
2026: 102 · 2025: 158 · 2024: 163 · 2023: 174 · 2022: 153 · 2021: 185 · 2020: 122 · 2019: 67
FWCI
42.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuron (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • JPB Foundation
  • Adelson Medical Research Foundation
  • Vincent J. Coates Foundation
  • NIH (R01 DA015043, R01 MH110504)
  • Veterans Administration
  • NOMIS Foundation
  • Helen Hay Whitney Foundation
  • National Multiple Sclerosis Society
  • Life Science Research Foundation
  • Stanford Medicine Dean’s Fellowship
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
Keywords
microglia, microglial heterogeneity, brain development, white matter development, amoeboid microglia, microglial transcriptome, mouse brain, innate immunity
MeSH terms
Algorithms, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Brain, Choroid Plexus, Computer Simulation, Embryo, Mammalian, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Transgenic, Oligodendroglia, Phagocytosis, Antigens, CD, Cluster Analysis, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Microglia, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Myeloid Cells, Cell Proliferation, Mice, Gene Regulatory Networks, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Transcriptome

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 2026-10-09, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-09 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

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