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Webinar Recap: In Vivo Imaging of Microglia as the Brain’s Thermostat for Tuning Neuronal Activity
This webinar recap summarizes the presentation given by Dr. Mario Merlini, assistant professor at the Institute of Blood and Brain at the University of Caen-Normandie, about his use of multiphoton microscopy and other techniques to address crucial research questions regarding the role of microglial cells in tuning neuronal activity in live mice.
In our "In Vivo Imaging of Microglia As The Brain's Thermostat for Tuning Neuronal Activity" webinar, Dr. Merlini provided an in-depth look at his research exploring the basis of microglial-neuronal interaction and neuronal hyperexcitability.
Dr. Merlini's presentation covered his lab's methods and experimental setup, their findings — including multiphoton images captured during his research — and his team's progress toward answering crucial questions about how chronic inhibition of microglial motility impacts neuronal function and how and why that inhibition induces brain hyperexcitability.
Audience Q&A
Download the webinar recap or watch the recording to learn more about these and other topics.
- How did you use 2-photon microscopy to induce uncaging of caged glutamate?
- How did you perform laser ablation for this research? What laser power do you recommend using for similar experiments?
- Which of the GTPases was primarily responsible for skewing microglia dynamics in the PTX mice or do they all need to be activated?
- Given that microglia tend to interwind often, how were you able to distinguish between processes in your microglia extensions and velocity analysis?
- Microglia could activated by the process of the cranial window and show morphology similar to what you described. Is this something you observed in your experiments and, if so, how did you deal with it?
- Did microglia demonstrate any tendency to target/touch specific domains of the neuron (e.g., dendrite, cell body, etc.)?
- Why did you choose to use RuBi-Glutamate vs. MNI-Glutamate (which is very commonly used and requires a smaller wavelength for uncaging)?