FIGURE 1.

Gene expression features and biological function of disease-associated microglia (DAM). Mouse DAM were first identified in the brains of 5xFAD mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Microglia switch from homeostatic to stage 1 DAM (Trem2-independent) and stage 2 DAM (Trem2-dependent) following signals associated with AD pathology, such as Aβ accumulation (Keren-Shaul et al., 2017). DAM are Alzheimer’s disease-associated phagocytic cells conserved in mice and human. In human AD brain, DAM shares gene expression features with mouse DAM (Grubman et al., 2019; Mathys et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2020; Gerrits et al., 2021). This unique type of microglia has the potential to restrict neurodegeneration, thus may have implications for therapeutics of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. Key genes involved in each condition are listed in the relative box. Red color indicates upregulation of the gene in the specific stage.