Imperial College London

Dr David R Owen MD PhD

Faculty of MedicineDepartment of Brain Sciences

Reader in Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3313 6195d.owen Website

 
 
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Location

 

G20AICTEM buildingHammersmith Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Nutma:2021:10.1002/glia.24052,
author = {Nutma, E and Gebro, E and Marzin, MC and van, der Valk P and Matthews, PM and Owen, DR and Amor, S},
doi = {10.1002/glia.24052},
journal = {GLIA},
pages = {2447--2458},
title = {Activated microglia do not increase 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) expression in the multiple sclerosis brain},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/glia.24052},
volume = {69},
year = {2021}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - To monitor innate immune responses in the CNS, the 18 kDa Translocator protein (TSPO) is a frequently used target for PET imaging. The frequent assumption that increased TSPO expression in the human CNS reflects pro-inflammatory activation of microglia has been extrapolated from rodent studies. However, TSPO expression does not increase in activated human microglia in vitro. Studies of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions reveal that TSPO is not restricted to pro-inflammatory microglia/macrophages, but also present in homeostatic or reparative microglia. Here, we investigated quantitative relationships between TSPO expression and microglia/macrophage phenotypes in white matter and lesions of brains with MS pathology. In white matter from brains with no disease pathology, normal appearing white matter (NAWM), active MS lesions and chronic active lesion rims, over 95% of TSPO+ cells are microglia/macrophages. Homeostatic microglial markers in NAWM and control tissue are lost/reduced in active lesions and chronic active lesion rims, reflecting cell activation. Nevertheless, pixel analysis of TSPO+ cells (n = 12,225) revealed that TSPO expression per cell is no higher in active lesions and chronic active lesion rims (where myeloid cells are activated) relative to NAWM and control. This data suggests that whilst almost all the TSPO signal in active lesions, chronic active lesion rims, NAWM and control is associated with microglia/macrophages, their TSPO expression predominantly reflects cell density and not activation phenotype. This finding has implications for the interpretation of TSPO PET signal in MS and other CNS diseases, and further demonstrates the limitation of extrapolating TSPO biology from rodents to humans.
AU - Nutma,E
AU - Gebro,E
AU - Marzin,MC
AU - van,der Valk P
AU - Matthews,PM
AU - Owen,DR
AU - Amor,S
DO - 10.1002/glia.24052
EP - 2458
PY - 2021///
SN - 0894-1491
SP - 2447
TI - Activated microglia do not increase 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) expression in the multiple sclerosis brain
T2 - GLIA
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/glia.24052
UR - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000663333000001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/glia.24052
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/90379
VL - 69
ER -