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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Yoshiki Hase, Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali, Ayushi Mahesh, Dr Mai Hase, Professor Raj KalariaORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2022 The Authors. Brain Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Neuropathology. With the hypothesis that perivascular microglia are involved as neuroinflammatory components of the gliovascular unit contributing to white matter hyperintensities on MRI and pathophysiology, we assessed their status in stroke survivors who develop dementia. Immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent methods were used to assess the distribution and quantification of total and perivascular microglial cell densities in 68 brains focusing on the frontal lobe WM and overlying neocortex in post-stroke dementia (PSD), post-stroke non-dementia (PSND) and similar age control subjects. We primarily used CD68 as a marker of phagocytic microglia, as well as other markers of microglia including Iba-1 and TMEM119, and the myeloid cell marker TREM2 to assess dementia-specific changes. We first noted greater total densities of CD68+ and TREM2+ cells per mm2 in the frontal WM compared to the overlying cortex across the stroke cases and controls (p = 0.001). PSD subjects showed increased percentage of activated perivascular CD68+ cells distinct from ramified or primed microglia in the WM (p < 0.05). However, there was no apparent change in perivascular TREM2+ cells. Total densities of TREM2+ cells were only ~10% of CD68+ cells but there was high degree of overlap (>70%) between them in both the WM and the cortex. CD68 and Iba-1 or CD68 and TMEM119 markers were colocalised by ~55%. Within the deep WM, ~30% of CD68+ cells were co-localised with fragments of degraded myelin basic protein. Among fragmented CD68+ cells in adjacent WM of PSD subjects, >80% of the cells expressed cleaved caspase-3. Our observations suggest although the overall repertoire of perivascular microglial cells is not changed in the parenchyma, PSD subjects accrue more perivascular-activated CD68+ microglia rather than TREM2+ cells. This implies there is a subset of CD68+ cells, which are responsible for the differential response in perivascular inflammation within the gliovascular unit of the deep WM.
Author(s): Hase Y, Ameen-Ali KE, Waller R, Simpson JE, Stafford C, Mahesh A, Ryan L, Pickering L, Bodman C, Hase M, Boche D, Horsburgh K, Wharton SB, Kalaria RN
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Brain Pathology
Year: 2022
Volume: 32
Issue: 6
Print publication date: 01/11/2022
Online publication date: 24/06/2022
Acceptance date: 30/05/2022
Date deposited: 03/08/2022
ISSN (print): 1015-6305
ISSN (electronic): 1750-3639
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bpa.13101
DOI: 10.1111/bpa.13101
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