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Neural stem cells were cultured adherent on Matrigel and then fixed with 4% PFA. The samples were stained with DAPI and TOM20.
After staining, a 4× expansion microscopy protocol was applied. Samples were imaged using a Zeiss LSM980 Airyscan confocal microscope with a 40× water-immersion obj.

6/ Finally, a huge thank you to our amazing collaborators who made this work possible! 🙌 Read the full paper here: 🔗 rdcu.be/eccKZ
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5/ Could boosting microglial function be a therapeutic strategy? Enhancing αSyn clearance while preventing age-related dysfunction might help slow disease progression. More research is needed! 🔬

4/ Key takeaways:
Young microglia act as a first line of defense against toxic αSyn.
With aging, microglia shift from clearing αSyn to facilitating its spread, potentially accelerating PD progression.

3/ Most strikingly, microglia exposed to Lewy body fractions from human PD brains not only accumulated αSyn but also seeded new aggregates in nearby neurons. This suggests that aged microglia might promote disease propagation.

2/ Young microglia do this efficiently! But aging changes everything. In older mice, microglia fail to degrade αSyn efficiently, leading to its accumulation and spread. We also observed similar αSyn accumulation in microglia from human PD brains.

1/ Microglia are known for their ability to "eat" and degrade harmful materials. In this study, we show that periventricular microglia, which monitor the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), actively phagocytize toxic αSyn species. 🧠💪