TY - JOUR AU - Masuda, Takahiro AU - Amann, Lukas AU - Sankowski, Roman AU - Staszewski, Ori AU - Lenz, Maximilian AU - D Errico, Paolo AU - Snaidero, Nicolas AU - Costa Jordão, Marta Joana AU - Böttcher, Chotima AU - Kierdorf, Katrin AU - Jung, Steffen AU - Priller, Josef AU - Misgeld, Thomas AU - Vlachos, Andreas AU - Meyer-Luehmann, Melanie AU - Knobeloch, Klaus-Peter AU - Prinz, Marco TI - Novel Hexb-based tools for studying microglia in the CNS. JO - Nature immunology VL - 21 IS - 7 SN - 1529-2916 CY - London PB - Springer Nature Limited M1 - DZNE-2020-01365 SP - 802 - 815 PY - 2020 AB - Microglia and central nervous system (CNS)-associated macrophages (CAMs), such as perivascular and meningeal macrophages, are implicated in virtually all diseases of the CNS. However, little is known about their cell-type-specific roles in the absence of suitable tools that would allow for functional discrimination between the ontogenetically closely related microglia and CAMs. To develop a new microglia gene targeting model, we first applied massively parallel single-cell analyses to compare microglia and CAM signatures during homeostasis and disease and identified hexosaminidase subunit beta (Hexb) as a stably expressed microglia core gene, whereas other microglia core genes were substantially downregulated during pathologies. Next, we generated HexbtdTomato mice to stably monitor microglia behavior in vivo. Finally, the Hexb locus was employed for tamoxifen-inducible Cre-mediated gene manipulation in microglia and for fate mapping of microglia but not CAMs. In sum, we provide valuable new genetic tools to specifically study microglia functions in the CNS. KW - Animals KW - Brain: cytology KW - Brain: immunology KW - Brain: pathology KW - CRISPR-Cas Systems: genetics KW - Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental: immunology KW - Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental: pathology KW - Facial Nerve Injuries: immunology KW - Facial Nerve Injuries: pathology KW - Gene Knock-In Techniques KW - Genes, Reporter: genetics KW - Genetic Loci: genetics KW - Humans KW - Intravital Microscopy KW - Luminescent Agents: chemistry KW - Luminescent Proteins: chemistry KW - Luminescent Proteins: genetics KW - Macrophages: immunology KW - Macrophages: metabolism KW - Mice KW - Microglia: immunology KW - Microglia: metabolism KW - NIH 3T3 Cells KW - RNA-Seq KW - Single-Cell Analysis KW - Transfection KW - beta-Hexosaminidase beta Chain: genetics KW - beta-Hexosaminidase beta Chain: metabolism KW - Luminescent Agents (NLM Chemicals) KW - Luminescent Proteins (NLM Chemicals) KW - red fluorescent protein (NLM Chemicals) KW - beta-Hexosaminidase beta Chain (NLM Chemicals) LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:32541832 DO - DOI:10.1038/s41590-020-0707-4 UR - https://pub.dzne.de/record/153368 ER -