miR‐124 Contributes to the functional maturity of microglia

ABSTRACT During early development of the central nervous system (CNS), a subset of yolk‐sac derived myeloid cells populate the brain and provide the seed for the microglial cell population, which will self‐renew throughout life. As development progresses, individual microglial cells transition from a phagocytic amoeboid state through a transitional morphing phase into the sessile, ramified, and normally nonphagocytic microglia observed in the adult CNS under healthy conditions. The molecular drivers of this tissue‐specific maturation profile are not known. However, a survey of tissue resident macrophages identified miR‐124 to be expressed in microglia. In this study, we used transgenic zebrafish to overexpress miR‐124 in the mpeg1 expressing yolk‐sac‐derived myeloid cells that seed the microglia. In addition, a systemic sponge designed to neutralize the effects of miR‐124 was used to assess microglial development in a miR‐124 loss‐of ‐ function environment. Following the induction of miR‐124 overexpression, microglial motility and phagocytosis of apoptotic cells were significantly reduced. miR‐124 overexpression in microglia resulted in the accumulation of residual apoptotic cell bodies in the optic tectum, which could not be achieved by miR‐124 overexpression in differentiated neurons. Conversely, expression of the miR‐124 sponge caused an increase in the motility of microglia and transiently rescued motility and phagocytosis functions when activated simultaneously with miR‐124 overexpression. This study provides in vivo evidence that miR‐124 activity has a key role in the development of functionally mature microglia. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 507–518, 2016