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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Cell Biol. 2016 Mar 20;26(8):587–597. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2016.02.006

Figure 1. Microglia interact with developing cells in the postnatal brain.

Figure 1

A, Microglia (green) in the juvenile (P30) mouse hippocampus represent 5–10% of total CNS cells. Microglia are labeled using a transgenic reporter (CX3CR1egfp/WT) and neurons are labeled with an antibody directed against NeuN (purple). Scale bar=100µm. B, Microglia (Cx3CR1egfp/WT, green) in the SVZ of a P13 mouse engulfing actively dividing cells labeled with 5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine (EDU; purple). Often these apoptotic, dividing cells are found enveloped within microglial processes that form phagocytic cups (arrow and enlarged in inset). C, Microglia (CX3CR1egfp/WT, green) closely associate and often contact (arrow and inset) retinal ganglion cell (RGC) presynaptic inputs labeled by anterograde tracing with cholera toxin β subunit conjugated to Alexa 594 (CTB-594, purple) in the juvenile mouse lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN, P29). Di, Microglia (CX3CR1egfp/WT, green) in the early postnatal LGN (P5) closely associate with RGC presynaptic inputs (CTB-594, purple). Dii, Engulfment of presynaptic inputs can be visualized within the microglia soma and processes (arrow, inset) once all RGC input fluorescence outside the microglia volume is subtracted. B–D, Scale bar=10µm.