Microglia in Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsion: A New Therapeutic Target?

Aberrant activities of microglia, the immune cells of the brain, have been implicated in depression and anxiety disorders affected by high stress. To learn more, researchers studied the Hoxb8 lineage of microglia in mice (about 30% of microglia in mice have this lineage).

Using mice in which genes controlling Hoxb8 microglia were knocked out, investigators observed these mice to exhibit excessive grooming behavior, similar to compulsive grooming behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in humans. Female knockout mice exhibited greater over-grooming behaviors than males and exhibited heightened anxiety-like behavior and stress responses, unlike males. When female knockout mice were hormonally or surgically treated to lower progesteron…