Figure 5

Microglial phenotypes display significant differences in cell body and ramification patterns. Compared to ramified, the primed phenotype displays a larger cell body area (a) as reflected by a significantly larger maximum (not shown) and minimum feret (b). Despite this significant increase in area, the max-min feret (c) and the roundness (d) of the cell body did not statistically differ between these or any of the other phenotypes. The cell body morphology of reactive, primed and amoeboid microglia appears comparable at all points (a-d). Ramified and primed microglia both extend similar numbers of primary processes (e), however, primed microglia hold fewer ends (f) and nodes, (g) as well as significantly shorter processes (h) with no significant changes in volume (i) compared to ramified microglia. Reactive microglia extend a significant decrease of primary (e) and higher-order branches (f-g), as well as shorter processes than primed microglia (h) and amoeboid microglia present almost an absence of overall processes (e-g) that were thus, of significantly reduced length (h) and volume (i) compared to reactive microglia; *P <0.01, **P <0.001, ***P <0.0001.