ABSTRACT
Therefore, microglia are considered to play similar roles to those of macrophages in the CNS, functioning as scavenger cells, inflammatory cells, antigen-presenting cells and immunoregulatory cells. In addition, microglia may function as effector cells that induce demyelination or neuronal degeneration, and may also play a major part in the development of gliosis via secreting cytokines or some other soluble factors.8 In this chapter, we focus on the immunoregulatory functions, including antigen presentation and cytokine production, of primary microglial cell cultures derived from newborn rats.
