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Journal of Neuroinflammation
Published in: Journal of Neuroinflammation 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Research

Quantitative assessment of microglial morphology and density reveals remarkable consistency in the distribution and morphology of cells within the healthy prefrontal cortex of the rat

Authors: Ratchaniporn Kongsui, Sarah B Beynon, Sarah J Johnson, Frederick Rohan Walker

Published in: Journal of Neuroinflammation | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

Background

Microglial morphology within the healthy brain has been the subject of a number of observational studies. These have suggested that microglia may consist of separate classes, which possess substantially different morphological features. Critically, there have been no systematic quantitative studies of microglial morphology within the healthy brain.

Methods

We examined microglial cells within the adult rat prefrontal cortex. At high magnification, digital reconstructions of cells labelled with the microglial-specific marker ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1 (Iba-1) were made in each of the cortical layers. These reconstructions were subsequently analyzed to determine the convex hull area of the cells, their somal perimeter, the length of processes, the number of processes, the extent of process branching and the volume of processes. We additionally examined whether cells’ morphological features were associated with cell size or numerical density.

Results

Our analysis indicated that while there was substantial variability in the size of cells within the prefrontal cortex, cellular morphology was extremely consistent within each of the cortical layers.

Conclusions

Our results provide quantitative confirmation that microglia are largely homogenous in the uninjured rodent prefrontal cortex.
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Metadata
Title
Quantitative assessment of microglial morphology and density reveals remarkable consistency in the distribution and morphology of cells within the healthy prefrontal cortex of the rat
Authors
Ratchaniporn Kongsui
Sarah B Beynon
Sarah J Johnson
Frederick Rohan Walker
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Journal of Neuroinflammation / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1742-2094
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-014-0182-7

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