Developmental myelination is modified by microglial pruning

During development, oligodendrocytes contact and wrap neuronal axons with myelin. Similar to neurons and synapses, excess myelin sheaths are produced and selectively eliminated. However, unlike these other structures, almost nothing is known about myelin sheath elimination. Microglia, the resident immune cells of the CNS, refine the developing CNS by engulfing surplus neurons and synapses. To determine if microglia also prune myelin sheaths, we used zebrafish to visualize and manipulate interactions between microglia, oligodendrocytes, and neurons during development. We found that microglia closely associate with oligodendrocytes and specifically phagocytose myelin sheaths. Silencing neuronal activity with botulinum toxin (BoNT/B) increased myelin engulfment by microglia. Furthermore, oligodendrocytes maintained excessive myelin sheaths following microglial ablation. Our work reveals a neuronal activity-regulated role for microglia in regulating myelination by oligodendrocytes.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  bioRxiv

• Publication date

  2019-06-03

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1101/659482
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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