High resolution in vivo imaging of microglia using a versatile non genetically-encoded marker.

Microglial cells are the innate immune cells of the CNS, whose main role is to monitor the integrity of and to react to any disturbances of brain homeostasis. As such, microglial cells are involved in a large number of CNS insults (e.g. acute CNS injury, brain tumors, apoptosis, infection, ischemia, neurodegenerative diseases) and their engagement can be either neurotoxic or neuroprotective [1, 2]. Despite their critical role in ameliorating or exacerbating disease progression, little is known about the in vivo functional properties of these cells.