Depletion of microglia exacerbates injury and impairs function recovery after spinal cord injury in mice

The role of microglia in spinal cord injury (SCI) remains ambiguous, partially due to the paucity of efficient methods to discriminate these resident microglia with blood-derived monocytes/macrophages. Here, we used pharmacological treatments to specifically eliminate microglia and subsequently to investigate the response of microglia after SCI in mice. We showed that treatment with colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitor PLX3397 eliminated ~90% microglia and did not affect other cell types in mouse spinal cord. PLX3397 treatment also induced a strong decrease in microglial proliferation induced by SCI. Depletion of microglia after SCI disrupted glial scar formation, enhanced immune cell infiltrates, reduced neuronal survival, delayed astrocyte repopulation, exacerbated axonal dieback, and impaired locomotor recovery. Therefore, our findings suggest microglia may play a protective role after SCI in mice.