Abnormal microglial-neuronal spatial organization in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in autism

作者：Morgan John T^*; Chana Gursharan; Abramson Ian; Semendeferi Katerina; Courchesne Eric; Everall Ian P

来源：Brain Research, 2012, 1456: 72-81.

DOI：10.1016/j.brainres.2012.03.036

• Autism
• Microglia
• Postmortem
• Spatial organization
• Neuron

Microglial activation and alterations in neuron number have been reported in autism. However, it is unknown whether microglial activation in the disorder includes a neuron-directed microglial response that might reflect neuronal dysfunction, or instead indicates a non-directed, pro-activation brain environment. To address this question, we examined microglial and neuronal organization in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region of pronounced early brain overgrowth in autism, via spatial pattern analysis of 13 male postmortern autism subjects and 9 controls. We report that microglia are more frequently present near neurons in the autism cases at a distance interval of 25 pm, as well as 75 and 100 mu m. Many interactions are observed between near-distance microglia and neurons that appear to involve encirclement of the neurons by microglial processes. Analysis of a young subject subgroup preliminarily suggests that this alteration may be present from an early age in autism. We additionally observed that neuron-neuron clustering, although normal in cases with autism as a whole, increases with advancing age in autism, suggesting a gradual loss of normal neuronal organization in the disorder. Microglia-microglia organization is normal in autism at all ages, indicating that aberrantly close microglia-neuron association in the disorder is not a result of altered microglial distribution. Our findings confirm that at least some microglial activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in autism is associated with a neuron-specific reaction, and suggest that neuronal organization may degrade later in life in the disorder.

• 出版日期2012-5-25