Charitè University Hospital,
Department of Ophthalmology,
Research group Neuroimmunology and
Retinopathologies, and MDC,
Department of Cellular Neuroscience
Berlin, Germany
Sex differences in brain structure and function are of substantial scientific interest because of sex-related susceptibility to psychiatric and neurological disorders. Neuroinflammation is a common denominator of many of these diseases and thus microglia as the brain´s immunocompetent and instrumental cells has come into focus in sex specific studies. We and others show that male microglia are more frequent in specific brain areas and appear to have a higher potential to respond to stimuli, whereas female microglia seem to acquire a more “protective” phenotype.