A concern on comparing 'apples' and 'oranges' when differences between microglia used in human and rodent studies go far, far beyond simply species: Comment on Smith and Dragunow

摘要

Smith and Dragunow [1] provided a thought-provoking Opinion article on human microglia. A central tenet therein is that human and rodent microglia are so fundamentally different that 'validation of rodent studies [on microglia] needs to be performed in conjunction with [studies using microglia from brain banks] before publication of rodent-based research'. Although published differences between these microglia do exist, a fundamental issue not broached by Smith and Dragunow [1] nor, frankly, by others, is why such differences occur. The authors assume the reported differences to be due to species differences. This is a dangerous assumption that, we believe, lacks supporting evidence required for such a strong claim.