The diversity, destiny, and memory of DAMs

Disease-associated microglia (DAMs) are a unique microglial state in development and various CNS pathologies. In this issue of Immunity, Lan and colleagues provide novel insights into the diversity of DAMs in CNS diseases, revealing their terminal fate following juvenile stroke verses their reversible fate following neonatal stroke and their ability to maintain immune memory upon return to homeostatic states. Disease-associated microglia (DAMs) are a unique microglial state in development and various CNS pathologies. In this issue of Immunity, Lan and colleagues provide novel insights into the diversity of DAMs in CNS diseases, revealing their terminal fate following juvenile stroke verses their reversible fate following neonatal stroke and their ability to maintain immune memory upon return to homeostatic states. Fate mapping of Spp1 expression reveals age-dependent plasticity of disease-associated microglia-like cells after brain injuryLan et al.ImmunityFebruary 2, 2024In BriefThe fate of disease-associated microglia (DAM) in neuropathologies remains elusive. Lan et al. generated an Spp1 fate-mapping model to track DAM-like microglia and find that the plasticity of DAM is age dependent. Juvenile stroke leads to the elimination of DAM, whereas neonatal DAM exhibits high plasticity and reversibility after injury, along with heightened sensitivity to subsequent immune challenges. Full-Text PDF