Wako Blog

Introducing a wide range of research topics, technical reports, and tips for your experiments.

Front Line of Microglia Research

Front Line of Microglia Research

6th review: Control of stroke via microglia-astrocyte crosstalk

This article was written by Dr. Schuichi Koizumi, Department of Neuropharmacology, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi.

The roles of glial cells in brain function have been successively clarified. Given rapid, substantial, and various changes in glial cells in various brain diseases, it is assumed that these changes in...

Front Line of Microglia Research

5th review: Reverse translational research in psychiatry using human blood to predict brain microglial activity

This article was written by Takahiro A. Kato, MD, PhD, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University.

While the involvement of microglia, immune cells that play an important role in brain inflammation, has recently been suggested not only in neurodegenerative diseases but also in various other neurops...

Front Line of Microglia Research

4th review: Macrophages control the inflammation and subsequent neural repair after ischemic stroke

This article was written by Dr. Kento Otani1,2, and Dr. Takashi Shichita1,3.

Cerebrovascular disease (stroke) is a major cause of chronic functional deficits, such as being bedridden. Ischemic stroke comprises approximately 80% of cerebrovascular disease in Japan. In ischemic ...

Front Line of Microglia Research

3rd review: Phagocytic cells in the brain

This article was written by Rena Kono, Yuji Ikegaya, and Ryuta Koyama, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo.

Phagocytosis is an important process in the immune system. Exogenous viruses and pathogens as well as endogenous cell debris and abnormally aggregated proteins are removed by phagocytes, "professional...

Front Line of Microglia Research

2nd review: Origin of microglia and brain diseases

This article was written by Dr. Kazuyuki Takata, Division of Integrated Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University.

Microglia are tissue macrophages in the central nervous system (CNS) (i.e., brain and spinal cord) and play a frontline role in CNS immunity. With its unique developmental mode and biology being revea...

We will prohibit unauthorized reprinting, duplication etc. of the text, images etc. of this site.