Human blood research of psychiatric disorders focusing on microglia hypothesis

Abstract

Microglia are immune cells in the brain, and microglia have recently been suggested to contribute to a variety of mental disorders. Herein, we introduce our novel reverse‐translational research system using peripheral bloods to clarify the underlying pathophysiology of microglial dysfunctions in mental disorders by analyzing plasma components (i. e. metabolomics) and by producing/analyzing induced microglia‐like (iMG) cells from monocytes. In this paper, we introduce our latest research especially focusing on plasma metabolomic analysis in patients with major depressive disorder.