Lifestyle-dependent microglial plasticity: training the brain guardians.

Marcus Augusto-Oliveira, Alexei Verkhratsky

Journal: Biology direct 2021;16(1):12

PMID: 34353376

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Abstract

Lifestyle is one of the most powerful instruments shaping mankind; the lifestyle includes many aspects of interactions with the environment, from nourishment and education to physical activity and quality of sleep. All these factors taken in complex affect neuroplasticity and define brain performance and cognitive longevity. In particular, physical exercise, exposure to enriched environment and dieting act through complex modifications of microglial cells, which change their phenotype and modulate their functional activity thus translating lifestyle events into remodelling of brain homoeostasis and reshaping neural networks ultimately enhancing neuroprotection and cognitive longevity.

Address: Laboratório de Farmacologia Molecular, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal Do Pará, Belém, 66075-110, Brazil. [email protected].; Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK. [email protected].; Department of Stem Cell Biology, State Research Institute Centre for Innovative Medicine, 01102, Vilnius, Lithuania. [email protected].; Achucarro Center for Neuroscience, IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011, Bilbao, Spain. [email protected].; Department of Neurosciences, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and CIBERNED, Leioa, Spain. [email protected].

DOI: 10.1186/s13062-021-00297-4

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MeSH Terms: Brain, Humans, Life Style, Microglia, Neuronal Plasticity