Functional roles of microglia in the brain.

It has been suggested that microglia, a type of glial cells in the central nervous system, play various important roles in normal and pathologic brains. In this article, we discussed the association or roles of microglia in injury and in brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, AIDS dementia complex, multiple sclerosis and ischemia. Furthermore, microglia-derived cytotoxic products and other secretory factors were summarized. In addition to the pathological aspects, secretory factors that showed neurotrophic effects were described with special reference to their physiological significance in the neuronal growth, neuronal function and regeneration processes. Accumulated evidence suggests that microglia are associated with not only brain pathology but also normal physiology in the brain.