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  • Mafba and Mafbb regulate microglial colonization of zebrafish brain via controlling chemotaxis receptor expression.

Mafba and Mafbb regulate microglial colonization of zebrafish brain via controlling chemotaxis receptor expression.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2022-09-20)
Liang Lou, Tao Yu, Yimei Dai, Shizheng Zhao, Shachuan Feng, Jin Xu, Zilong Wen
ABSTRACT

Microglia are the central nervous system (CNS)-resident macrophages involved in neural inflammation, neurogenesis, and neural activity regulation. Previous studies have shown that naturally occurring neuronal apoptosis plays a critical role in regulating microglial colonization of the brain in zebrafish. However, the molecular signaling cascades underlying neuronal apoptosis-mediated microglial colonization and the regulation of these cascades remain undefined. Here, we show that basic leucine zipper (b-Zip) transcription factors, Mafba and Mafbb, two zebrafish orthologs of mammalian MAFB, are key regulators in neuronal apoptosis-mediated microglial colonization of the brain in zebrafish. We document that the loss of Mafba and Mafbb function perturbs microglial colonization of the brain. We further demonstrate that Mafba and Mafbb act cell-autonomously and cooperatively to orchestrate microglial colonization, at least in part, by regulating the expression of G protein-coupled receptor 34a (Gpr34a), which directs peripheral macrophage recruitment into the brain through sensing the lysophosphatidylserine (lysoPS) released by the apoptotic neurons. Our study reveals that Mafba and Mafbb regulate neuronal apoptosis-mediated microglial colonization of the brain in zebrafish via the lysoPS-Gpr34a pathway.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Roche
Dispase® II (neutral protease, grade II), lyophilized, from bacterial, Roche, pkg of 5 × 1 g
Roche
Anti-Digoxigenin-POD, Fab fragments, from sheep
Sigma-Aldrich
Deoxyribonuclease I from bovine pancreas, Type II, lyophilized powder, Protein ≥80 %, ≥2,000 units/mg protein