Microglia and its roles in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease(AD)is the most common neurodegeneration disease of old age,the cause of which is very complicated.At present,most of scholars think that the deposit of β-amyloid make the activation of neuroglial cells,which trigger the chronic inflammatory reactivity in AD brain.A lot of cells such as microglia,astrocyte and neuron are involved in the process of AD,microglial cells are the most important cells in AD brain.Microglia can be activated by β-amyloid protein.This activation can produce further release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and toxic mediators that might induce inflammatory responses in AD brain and might contribute to neuronal injury and death.Aβ and activated microglia persist and thus initiate a vicious circle of inflammatory processes,which finally leads to the development and progression of AD.