小胶质细胞是动态细胞,不断调查他们的周围环境并与神经元和突触相互作用。的确,丰富的知识揭示了小胶质细胞在调节发育中大脑的突触传递和可塑性方面的关键作用。在过去的十年里,新的药理和遗传策略允许急性去除小胶质细胞,打开探索和理解小胶质细胞在成人大脑中的作用的可能性。在这次审查中,我们总结并讨论了小胶质细胞耗竭策略对目前对小胶质细胞对突触功能的作用的理解的贡献,学习和记忆,和生理和病理条件下的行为。我们首先描述了可用的小胶质细胞消耗方法,突出了它们的主要优点和缺点。然后,我们回顾了小胶质细胞耗竭对结构和功能突触可塑性的影响。接下来,我们集中分析了小胶质细胞耗竭对行为的影响,包括一般的运动活动,感官知觉,运动功能,社交能力,健康动物和疾病动物模型的学习和记忆。最后,我们整合了综述研究的结果,并讨论了小胶质细胞在维持突触功能方面的新作用,学习,记忆强度和健忘,以及小胶质细胞耗竭在脑疾病模型中的意义。
Microglia are dynamic cells, constantly surveying their surroundings and interacting with neurons and synapses. Indeed, a wealth of knowledge has revealed a critical role of microglia in modulating synaptic transmission and plasticity in the developing brain. In the past decade, novel pharmacological and genetic strategies have allowed the acute removal of microglia, opening the possibility to explore and understand the role of microglia also in the adult brain. In this review, we summarized and discussed the contribution of microglia depletion strategies to the current understanding of the role of microglia on synaptic function, learning and memory, and behavior both in physiological and pathological conditions. We first described the available microglia depletion methods highlighting their main strengths and weaknesses. We then reviewed the impact of microglia depletion on structural and functional synaptic plasticity. Next, we focused our analysis on the effects of microglia depletion on behavior, including general locomotor activity, sensory perception, motor function, sociability, learning and memory both in healthy animals and animal models of disease. Finally, we integrated the findings from the reviewed studies and discussed the emerging roles of microglia on the maintenance of synaptic function, learning, memory strength and forgetfulness, and the implications of microglia depletion in models of brain disease.