Molecular and metabolic heterogeneity of astrocytes and microglia.

Astrocytes and microglia are central players in a myriad of processes in the healthy and diseased brain, ranging from metabolism to immunity. The crosstalk between these two cell types contributes to pathology in many if not all neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Recent advancements in integrative multimodal sequencing techniques have begun to highlight how heterogeneous both cell types are and the importance of metabolism to their regulation. We discuss here the transcriptomic, metabolic, and functional heterogeneity of astrocytes and microglia and highlight their interaction in health and disease. Astrocytes and microglia are important glial cells involved in normal development, health, and regulation of central nervous system metabolism. Advances in sequencing and functional modeling have revealed their complex heterogeneous sub-states, particularly in response to infection, injury, and during disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]