ArticleGlia2016
Dark microglia: A new phenotype predominantly associated with pathological states.
Article in Glia, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 247 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
247 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 428 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Glial cells in neuropathic pain.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- TREM2 in neurodegeneration and diseases.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Review
- Microglial response to sleep deprivation depends on the hippocampal region and paradigm used in adult male mice.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- The C3-C3aR axis drives rotenone-induced cognitive damage via synaptic engulfment, dark microglia and PANoptosis.Redox biology · 2026Article
- Digging Deep into Alzheimer Disease: How Electron Microscopy Helps Elucidating Its Pathogenesis.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Microglial colonization of the developing mouse brain is controlled by both microglial and neural CSF-1.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Impact of prenatal delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol exposure on mouse brain development: a fetal-to-adulthood magnetic resonance imaging study.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Dysfunction of lipid metabolism and lysosomal capacity: at the core of microglial aging?Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- Early micro- and nanoscale microglial responses to blood-brain barrier modulation by transcranial focused ultrasound.Theranostics · 2026Article
- Basic Microglial Functions and How They Go Awry in Neurodegenerative Disease.Annual review of pathology · 2026Review
- Therapeutic Potentials of the Seaweed-Derived Compounds for Alzheimer's Disease.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- A role for microglia in mediating the microbiota-gut-brain axis.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- Roles of TREM2 in Alzheimer's disease.Translational neurodegeneration · 2025Review
- Review
- Dual Nature of Mitochondrial Integrated Stress Response: Molecular Switches from Protection to Pathology.Genes · 2025Review
- Exploring Iron Deposition Patterns Using Light and Electron Microscopy in the Mouse Brain Across Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Pathology Conditions.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Article
- Microglia-driven inflammation induces progressive tauopathies and synucleinopathies.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Implications of Mucin-TypeMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
187 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The past decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of microglia. These immune cells were shown to actively remodel neuronal circuits, leading to propose new pathogenic mechanisms. To study microglial implication in the loss of synapses, the best pathological correlate of cognitive decline across chronic stress, aging, and diseases, we recently conducted ultrastructural analyses. Our work uncovered the existence of a new microglial phenotype that is rarely present under steady state conditions, in hippocampus, cerebral cortex, amygdala, and hypothalamus, but becomes abundant during chronic stress, aging, fractalkine signaling deficiency (CX3 CR1 knockout mice), and Alzheimer's disease pathology (APP-PS1 mice). Even though these cells display ultrastructural features of microglia, they are strikingly distinct from the other phenotypes described so far at the ultrastructural level. They exhibit several signs of oxidative stress, including a condensed, electron-dense cytoplasm and nucleoplasm making them as "dark" as mitochondria, accompanied by a pronounced remodeling of their nuclear chromatin. Dark microglia appear to be much more active than the normal microglia, reaching for synaptic clefts, while extensively encircling axon terminals and dendritic spines with their highly ramified and thin processes. They stain for the myeloid cell markers IBA1 and GFP (in CX3 CR1-GFP mice), and strongly express CD11b and microglia-specific 4D4 in their processes encircling synaptic elements, and TREM2 when they associate with amyloid plaques. Overall, these findings suggest that dark microglia, a new phenotype that we identified based on their unique properties, could play a significant role in the pathological remodeling of neuronal circuits, especially at synapses.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.