Prevention of neuronal hyperexcitability is essential for healthy brain function, as is illustrated by the aberrant, hyperexcited neuronal activity that contributes to cognitive dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and several psychiatric disorders. In this webinar, I will describe recent data acquired with awake in vivo two-photon imaging, in vivo EEG recordings, two-photon-induced glutamate uncaging, and 3D reconstructions of scanning block-face electron microscopy in a newly developed mouse model of chronically impaired microglia motilities.
These mice have hypersynchronized neuronal activity that induces a severe seizure phenotype. The findings reveal a unique role for microglia dynamics in maintaining evoked neuronal activity within a physiological range to prevent brain hyperexcitability, identifying microglia as thermostat-like cells in the regulation of brain activity. I will further present the development of the automated whisker stimulus tool and its integration in a synchronized in vivo two-photon time-lapse image acquisition workflow, as was used in this study for the simultaneous imaging of microglia motilities and evoked intraneuronal Ca2+ transients in awake, head-fixed mice.
Read more about Dr. Merlini's in-vivo two-photon imaging, ablation, and glutamate uncaging experiments on microglia in our latest Fluorescence Microscopy Journal Club.
Mario Merlini, Ph.D.
Junior Team Leader, Blood & Brain @ Caen Normandie Institute, INSERM U1237, GIP Cyceron, Caen, France