Fig. 1

Regionally isolated microglia have distinct basal cytokine profiles. Microglia from the midbrain SN and VTA as well as the cortex (CTX) were isolated based on previously established methods. We find that cultures of microglia are pure, and the vast majority (95–100%) of cells stain for the microglial markers Iba1 (a) and CD11b (b). Regionally isolated microglia were subjected to qPCR analysis for 13 pro- and 8 anti-inflammatory cytokines and compared between different regions. In comparison to CTX microglia, SN microglia (c), left column, exhibit greater expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL3, CCL3, and CCL4, with diminished IFNγ expression, whereas VTA microglia (c, right column) express greater levels of RANTES, Cxcl12, and CCL19, while expressing lower levels of IL10. A secondary comparison against VTA microglia (d) demonstrated that both SN (left column) and CTX (right column) microglia have greatly upregulated levels of IL10 and diminished expression of CCL19. A number of other differences in these profiles demonstrate a regional variability to microglia