Amanda Sierra, Rosa C. Paolicelli, Helmut Kettenmann
Highlights
Microglia were first described by the Spanish researcher Pío del Río-Hortega in 1919.
Río-Hortega’s discoveries identified and defined the three types of glial cells of the CNS: astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia.
The field stagnated until the 1960s, when Georg Kreutzberg discovered the role of microglia in synaptic stripping in pathology.
Microglia were subsequently characterized as pathologic sensors in essentially all brain diseases and orchestrators of the neuroinflammatory response.
In the last two decades, after the discovery of their extraordinary motility and their unique origin in the yolk sac, microglial research has grown exponentially.
Physiological roles of microglia include synapse monitoring and pruning, as well as modulating neurogenesis, myelination, and vasculogenesis.