Characterization of microglia induced from mouse embryonic stem cells and their migration into the brain parenchyma

We derived microglia from mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells) at very high density. Using the markers Mac1+/CD45low and Mac1+/CD45high to define microglia and macrophages, respectively, we show that Mac1+ cells are induced by GM-CSF stimulation following neuronal differentiation of mouse ES cells using a five-step method. CD45low expression was high and CD45high expression was low on induced cells. We used a density gradient method to obtain a large amount of microglia-like cells, approximately 90% of Mac1+ cells. Microglia-like cells expressed MHC class I, class II, CD40, CD80, CD86, and IFN-γR. The expression level of these molecules on microglia-like cells was barely enhanced by IFN-γ. Intravenously transferred GFP+ microglia derived from GFP+ ES cells selectively accumulated in brain but not in peripheral tissues such as spleen and lymph node. GFP+ cells were detected mainly in corpus callosum and hippocampus but were rarely seen in cerebral cortex, where Iba1, another marker of microglia, is primarily expressed. Furthermore, both GFP+ and Iba1+ cells exhibited a ramified morphology characteristic of mature microglia. These studies suggest that ES cell-derived microglia-like cells obtained using our protocol are functional and migrate selectively into the brain but not into peripheral tissues after intravenous transplantation.