Abstract
Presentation Description :
A macrophage niche is not simply a location within a given tissue where these phagocytes reside or accumulate. Rather, it is a local system in which the microenvironment regulates the fate and function of these macrophages and in turn helps meet the dynamic needs of that tissue in health or disease. Elucidation of macrophage function in the context of its niche is therefore a robust approach to investigate the biology or pathobiology of a given tissue and how macrophages are contributing to it. However, very little is known in this regard. I will present how our lab has been leveraging scRNA-Seq of mouse retina to identify niche-associated populations of microglia, i.e. resident macrophages of the CNS parenchyma. I will also share our most recent work, which is defining the subretinal space in the context of an inducible microglial niche during certian retinal degeneration settings and explain what this novel concept is revealing about disease.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.