ArticleMolecular psychiatry2024
Optogenetic stimulation of mouse Hoxb8 microglia in specific regions of the brain induces anxiety, grooming, or both.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- The bidirectional enigma of glaucoma and anxiety: from neuroinflammatory mechanisms to mind-body integrated therapies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The genetics of trichotillomania and excoriation disorder: A systematic review.Comprehensive psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- A Gut-Brain Axis Underlying Succinate-Associated Compulsive-Like Behavior.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Microglia respond to and induce anxiety and grooming in mice using calcium signaling.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Standardized chronic restraint stress protocols reveal dynamic evolution of behavioral adaptations in male mice: implications for translational neuroscience.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Genetic-Environmental Programming of Microglial Identity: Shaping Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Neurodevelopment and Neurodevelopmental Diseases.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Arsenic attenuates responsiveness to inflammatory stimuli in the SIM-A9 microglial cell line.Neurotoxicology · 2026Article
- Transcranial vibrotactile stimulation enhances hippocampal cholinergic signaling and memory through frequency-dependent mechanotransduction.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Top2a-dependent neuronal regulation of social behavior and persistent rescue of social deficit through PRC2-mediated epigenetic reprogramming.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Defective Hoxb8 microglia are causative for both chronic anxiety and pathological overgrooming in mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Selective neuronal restoration of progranulin does not prevent the frontotemporal dementia like-phenotype of progranulin knockout mice.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Microglia contribute to bipolar depression through Serinc2-dependent phospholipid synthesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- GABAergic neurons in central amygdala contribute to orchestrating anxiety-like behaviors and breathing patterns.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Advancing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Research: Insights from Transgenic Animal Models and Innovative Therapies.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Neurobiology of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder from Genes to Circuits: Insights from Animal Models.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Review
- Programmed Grooming after 30 Years of Study: A Review of Evidence and Future Prospects.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Tuning neural circuits and behaviors by microglia in the adult brain.Trends in neurosciences · 2024Review
- Microglial activation in the lateral amygdala promotes anxiety-like behaviors in mice with chronic moderate noise exposure.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Article
- Noteworthy perspectives on microglia in neuropsychiatric disorders.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2023Review
- Diosgenin normalization of disrupted behavioral and central neurochemical activity after single prolonged stress.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previously, we have shown that either disruption of the Hoxb8 gene or ablation of a microglial subpopulation, Hoxb8 microglia, results in mice exhibiting both chronic anxiety and OCSD-like behavior, compulsive pathological hair pulling (trichotillomania), to the point of showing lesions at the sites of overgrooming. Herein we show, that optogenetic stimulation of Hoxb8 microglia in specific regions of the brain induces elevated anxiety, grooming or both. Optogenetic stimulation of Hoxb8 microglia within the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) or the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) induces grooming, whereas stimulation of Hoxb8 microglia in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or central amygdala (CeA) produces elevated anxiety. Optogenetic stimulation of Hoxb8 microglia in the ventral CA1 region of the hippocampus (vCA1) induces both behaviors as well as freezing. In vitro we directly demonstrate that optogenetic stimulation of Hoxb8 microglia in specific regions of the brain activate neighboring neural activity through the induction of the c-fos-immediate early response. These experiments connect outputs from optogenetically stimulated Hoxb8 microglia, within specific regions of the brain, to the activation of neurons and neural circuits that in turn enable induction of these behaviors. These experiments suggest that Hoxb8 microglia are likely to be among, or the main, first responders to signals that evoke these behaviors. The same regions of the brain (DMS, mPFC, BLA, CeA and vCA1) have previously been defined at the neuronal level, by optogenetics, to control anxiety in mice. Intriguingly, the optogenetic experiments in microglia suggest that the two populations of microglia, canonical non-Hoxb8 and Hoxb8 microglia, function in opposition rather than in parallel to each other, providing a biological reason for the presence of two microglial subpopulations in mice.
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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.