ArticleCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2025
Brain region and sex differences in human microglia morphology and function.
Article in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Human Stem Cell-Derived Models of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimmune System.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Not just neurons: glial mechanisms driving sex-specific vulnerability to withdrawal and relapse in substance use disorder.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Germ-free piglets display variable neuroinflammatory-like perturbations in prefrontal cortical microglia.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Microglia exhibit complex and dynamic morphology that is linked to function. Altered microglia function has been implicated in multiple diseases of the brain, including elevated phagocytosis of neuronal dendritic spines in schizophrenia. However, understanding the relationship between altered microglia and pathophysiology first requires a clearer picture of microglia morphology in the non-diseased brain, which has yet to be fully established. Here, we deploy immunostaining and confocal microscopy to sample over 1,300 microglia from two prefrontal cortex (PFC) subregions in postmortem human brain (3 males, 3 females). We use Neurolucida 360 to trace the 3-dimensional structure of these microglia and quantify interactions with dendritic spines. We find that PFC microglia in male subjects display overall more complex branching than in female subjects, and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) microglia are more complexly branched with more round somas than those in the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), irrespective of sex. Furthermore, a lower proportion of phagocytic burden in sgACC microglia involves engulfment of dendritic spines compared to DLPFC. Overall, our results paint a detailed and nuanced picture of microglia morphology and function in subjects unaffected by psychiatric or neurologic illness that can be used as a benchmark for future studies of the diseased brain.
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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 Socratic graph.