Abstract
Microglia, glial cells with immunological/inflammatory functions, have been suggested to play important roles in various psychiatric disorders. To clarify these aspects, novel translational methods should be applied. We herein introduce two novel translational research approaches focusing on human microglia, in order to clarify the relationship between psychopathology and microglia. (1) We have recently conducted an economic game - rust game - to healthy young males with or without 4 - day- treatment of minocycline, an antibiotic with microglial inhibitory effects. Interestingly, minocycline suppressed personality - oriented and/or drive - oriented social behaviors (Watabe, Kato, et al, 2013). (2) Deeper physiological/pathological molecular mechanisms of human microglia have not been clarified due to technical and ethical issues (such as difficulties of human brain biopsy). We developed a novel technique to induce microglia- like cells (iMG) from human peripheral broods within 2 weeks (Ohgidani, Kato, et al, 2014). We believe that our novel translational approach will open the door to explore various unknown psychopathological aspects of human microglia in psychiatric disorders.
