Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS

Microglia, complement and schizophrenia

Nature Neuroscience volume 22, pages 333–334 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Excessive synapse elimination during adolescence and early adulthood has long been hypothesized to underpin the emergence of schizophrenia. A new study reports that induced microglia-like cells derived from schizophrenia patients display increased synapse engulfment, which may be partly mediated by a genetic schizophrenia-risk variant.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Increased synapse engulfment by iMGs in a schizophrenia patient-derived cellular model.

References

  1. Feinberg, I. J. Psychiatr. Res. 17, 319–334 (1983).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Paolicelli, R. C. et al. Science 333, 1456–1458 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Forsyth, J. K. & Lewis, D. A. Trends Cogn. Sci. 21, 760–778 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Garey, L. J. et al. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 65, 446–453 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Glantz, L. A. & Lewis, D. A. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 57, 65–73 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Konopaske, G. T., Lange, N., Coyle, J. T. & Benes, F. M. JAMA Psychiatry 71, 1323–1331 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Pantelis, C. et al. Lancet 361, 281–288 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Cannon, T. D. et al. Biol. Psychiatry 77, 147–157 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Nature 511, 421–427 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Sekar, A. et al. Nature 530, 177–183 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Stevens, B. et al. Cell 131, 1164–1178 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Schafer, D. P. et al. Neuron 74, 691–705 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Sellgren, C.M. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0334-7 (2019).

  14. Chaudhry, I. B. et al. J. Psychopharmacol. 26, 1185–1193 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Gosselin, D. et al. Science 356, eaal3222 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Genetics, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA

    Meiyan Wang, Lei Zhang & Fred H. Gage

  2. Neurobiology Section, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

    Meiyan Wang

Authors
  1. Meiyan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lei Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fred H. Gage
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fred H. Gage.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, M., Zhang, L. & Gage, F.H. Microglia, complement and schizophrenia. Nat Neurosci 22, 333–334 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0343-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0343-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing