Developmental Regulation of Retinal Microglia

PROJECT SUMMARY Microglia, the resident neuroimmune cells of the CNS, play central roles in retinal development, homeostasis and disease. It is a priority to understand how retinal microglia and other ocular myeloid cell populations are established during development and maintained in adult under diverse conditions. In this study we investigate the recruitment and development of retinal microglia and relationship with resident ocular macrophages at multiple stages of development. The first aim will use lineage tracing to track the seeding and differentiation of microglia from subsets of myeloid progenitors in embryonic retina and the role of cell death in this process. The second aim will define whether there is postnatal infiltration of myeloid cells into retina, the role of cell death and relationship to retinal microglia. The third aim will test the role of TGFß signaling in regulating the development of retinal microglia at embryonic and postnatal ages. This study will provide mechanistic insight into how retinal microglia recruitment and development are regulated. Since there are parallels in microglia function in both development and disease, this may ultimately inform our understanding of how resident myeloid cell populations are regulated and participate in degenerative disease processes resulting in loss of vision.