Microglial turnover after irradiation — has anyone looked at this?

AWG Discussions Brain AWG Topics
1

Hi everyone, @BrainAWG
Gregory Nelson’s talk yesterday got me thinking. After irradiation, microglia look resting again within about a week, but the population itself does not recover. Density drops over the following weeks, self-renewal does not bring it back, and the niche is gradually filled by peripherally derived macrophages. The cells there a month later are not the ones that were there before.

That made me wonder whether, at least in some cases, what looks like resolution is actually replacement of the cell population, and whether behaviour tracks which cells are present rather than how much signal they emit at a given moment. So the question I want to raise: do behavioural outcomes track the composition of the microglial population ( density, turnover, share of peripherally derived cells ) rather than levels of an inflammatory marker at a single time point? Has anyone here thought about this in relation to our datasets, or come across it in discussion? I would like to know before I try to take it further.

1 Like
2

Radiation-Induced Senescence Bystander Effect: The Role of Exosomes - PMC The prior mechanism may be involved.

3

From an architectural perspective, this also highlights the need to reduce radiation exposure before biological damage occurs through appropriate habitat design, shielding materials and protected internal zones.

5

From an architectural perspective, the focus regarding the environment would be controlling the level of radiation exposure.