Decreased microglial Wnt/β-catenin signalling drives microglial pro-inflammatory activation in the developing brain

Authors: Juliette Van Steenwinckel, Anne-Laure Schang, Michelle L Krishnan, Vincent Degos, Andrée Delahaye-Duriez, Cindy Bokobza, Zsolt Csaba, Franck Verdonk, Amélie Montané, Stéphanie Sigaut, Olivier Hennebert, Sophie Lebon, Leslie Schwendimann, Tifenn Le Charpentier, Rahma Hassan-Abdi, Gareth Ball, Paul Aljabar, Alka Saxena, Rebecca K Holloway, Walter Birchmeier, Olivier Baud, David Rowitch, Veronique Miron, Fabrice Chretien, Claire Leconte, Valérie C Besson, Enrico G Petretto, A David Edwards, Henrik Hagberg, Nadia Soussi-Yanicostas, Bobbi Fleiss, Pierre Gressens

Published: 2019-10-01

DOI: 10.1093/brain/awz319

Source: Full article


Abstract

Inflammatory activation of microglia in the brains of prematurely born infants can lead to permanent neurological sequelae. Van Steenwinckel et al. show that a reduction in microglial Wnt signalling is necessary and sufficient to drive a microglial phenotype causing hypomyelination, and establish the Wnt pathway as a viable therapeutic target.