AUTHOR=Corraliza-Gomez Miriam , Bendito Beatriz , Sandonis-Camarero David , Mondejar-Duran Jorge , Villa Miguel , Poncela Marta , Valero Jorge , Sanchez Diego , Ganfornina Maria D. TITLE=Dual role of Apolipoprotein D as long-term instructive factor and acute signal conditioning microglial secretory and phagocytic responses JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience VOLUME=17 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2023.1112930 DOI=10.3389/fncel.2023.1112930 ISSN=1662-5102 ABSTRACT=
Microglial cells are recognized as very dynamic brain cells, screening the environment and sensitive to signals from all other cell types in health and disease. Apolipoprotein D (ApoD), a lipid-binding protein of the Lipocalin family, is required for nervous system optimal function and proper development and maintenance of key neural structures. ApoD has a cell and state-dependent expression in the healthy nervous system, and increases its expression upon aging, damage or neurodegeneration. An extensive overlap exists between processes where ApoD is involved and those where microglia have an active role. However, no study has analyzed the role of ApoD in microglial responses. In this work, we test the hypothesis that ApoD, as an extracellular signal, participates in the intercellular crosstalk sensed by microglia and impacts their responses upon physiological aging or damaging conditions. We find that a significant proportion of ApoD-dependent aging transcriptome are microglia-specific genes, and show that lack of ApoD