Beatriz Almolda

Autonomous University of Barcelona | UAB · Department of Cellular Biology, Physiology and Immunology

Traumatic brain injury is the greatest cause of disability and death in young adults in the developed world. The outcome for a TBI patient is determined by the severity of the injury, not only from the initial insult but, especially, as a product of the secondary injury. It is proposed that this secondary injury is directly linked to neuro-inflamma...

Transient potential receptor vanilloid 2 (TRPV2) is widely expressed through the nervous system and specifically found in neuronal subpopulations and some glial cells. TRPV2 is known to be sensitized by methionine oxidation, which results from inflammation. Here we aim to characterize the expression and regulation of TRPV2 in myelination pathologie...

The subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus is an adult neurogenic niche where new neurons are continuously generated. A dramatic hippocampal neurogenesis decline occurs with increasing age, contributing to cognitive deficits. The process of neurogenesis is intimately regulated by the microenvironment, with inflammation being considered a strong nega...

Physiological aging is characterized by an imbalance of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators leading to neuroinflammation. Microglial cells, which are highly regulated by the local microenvironment, undergo specific changes depending upon the brain area during aging. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of age over microg...

Determination of microglial phagocytosis of myelin has acquired importance in the study of demyelinating diseases. One strategy to determine microglial phagocytosis capacity consists of assaying microglia with fluorescently labeled myelin; however, most approaches are performed in cell culture, where microglia usually show important phenotypic diff...

Background When the homeostasis of the central nervous system (CNS) is altered, microglial cells become activated displaying a wide range of phenotypes that depend on the specific site, the nature of the activator, and particularly the microenvironment generated by the lesion. Cytokines are important signals involved in the modulation of the molecu...

Microglia are the main immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), and they are devoted to the active surveillance of the CNS during homeostasis and disease. In the last years, the microglial receptor Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) has been defined to mediate several microglial functions, including phagocytosis, surv...

Fourier Transform Infrared microspectroscopy (μFTIR) is a very useful method to analyze the biochemical properties of biological samples in situ. Many diseases affecting the central nervous system (CNS) have been studied using this method, to elucidate alterations in lipid oxidation or protein aggregation, among others. In this work, we describe in...

Physical exercise can reduce the cognitive decline associated with traumatic brain injury, yet little is known about the optimal administration schedules. Here, different protocols of voluntary wheel running were evaluated for their effects on object recognition memory (ORM), neuroprotection (NeuN+ cells), microglial reactivity (Iba1 staining) and...

When central nervous system (CNS) homeostasis is altered, microglial cells become rapidly activated, proliferate and release a broad range of molecules. Among the plethora of molecules involved in the regulation of microglial activation, cytokines are considered crucial. Although production of interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) has been demonstrated after diff...

Microglia are considered to be the resident macrophages of the CNS and main effector of immune brain function. Due to their essential role in the regulation of neuroinflammatory response, microglia constitute an important target for neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. The communication between neur...

Microglial cells are highly dynamic cells with processes continuously moving to survey the surrounding territory. Microglia possess a broad variety of surface receptors and subtle changes in their microenvironment cause microglial cell processes to extend, retract, and interact with neuronal synaptic contacts. When the nervous system is disturbed,...

Microglia, the resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), respond vigorously to insults such as nerve injury. We have shown previously in the normal CNS the properties of microglia are dramatically altered in the absence of IRF8. Here we examined whether IRF8 is involved in the microglial cell response to sterile nerve injury. Facia...

The infiltration of immune cells in the central nervous system is a common hallmark in different neuroinflammatory conditions. Accumulating evidence indicates that resident glial cells can establish a cross-talk with infiltrated immune cells, including T-cells, regulating their recruitment, activation and function within the CNS. Although the healt...

Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a cytokine that plays a crucial role in regulating the inflammatory response and immune reactions. In the central nervous system (CNS), IL-10 is mainly produced by astrocytes and microglia and it is upregulated after various insults, such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, middle cerebral artery occlusion, excit...

The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor (IRF) 8 has a key role in the cellular response to IFN-γ and is involved in myeloid cell differentiation. We have previously identified IRF8 to be a constitutive and IFN-γ-stimulated nuclear factor that regulates the homeostatic properties of microglia. Our study aimed to determine the role of I...

Transgenic IL-10 production in the CNS induces a specific activated microglial phenotype.•IL-10-induced microglia shows increased Iba1, CD11b, CD16/32 and F4/80.•GFAP-IL10Tg mice show lower excitability of CA1 hippocampal connections and LTP absence.•GFAP-IL10Tg mouse will be a very useful tool to study IL-10 functions in the CNS.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine with a key role in the control of inflammatory/immune responses. In the central nervous system (CNS), an increase in IL-6 occurs in a wide range of pathological conditions such as excitotoxicity and traumatic brain injury. We evaluated the effects of astrocyte-targeted production of IL-6 in the CNS in...

Visualization of microglia by means of histochemistry has been for years a reliable method to demonstrate this population of cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Wide range of data on microglia has been published using lectin and enzymatic histochemistry. While at present, in most laboratories, the use of specific antibodies is the first choi...

The use of different lectins for the study of microglial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) is a valuable tool that has been extensively used in the last years for the selective staining of this glial cell population, not only in normal physiological conditions, but also in a wide range of pathological situations where the normal homeostasis...

We identified IRF8 as a constitutive and IFN-γ-stimulated nuclear factor in microglia of the CNS. IRF8 is a transcription factor with a key role in the cellular response to IFN-γ but is also pivotal in myeloid cell differentiation. Here we employed IRF8 KO mice to determine the role of IRF8 in microglial development and function in the healthy CNS...

A–C) Photographs showing the CD4 (A) and Tbet (B) immunostatining at score 0R. Note that the few Tbet+ cells did not colocalize with CD4 (arrows in A–C). D–F) Colocalization between CD4 and ROR-γ was found at score 0R in some cells located near blood vessels (arrows). Bar scale = 30 µm (TIF)

Apoptotic lymphocytes. A–C) Double immunolabelling combining the microglial marker Iba1 and CD4, and counterstained with DAPI. Iba1+ microglial cells (green) were observed closely related to apoptotic cells that were identified as CD4+ lymphocytes (arrows in A, B and C). Bar scale = 20 µm (TIF)

A–D) Cells immunolabelled with CD3 and CD4 were observed at the different scores of EAE evolution (arrows). Note that, in addition to these double positive cells, also few CD3+CD4- cells (arrowheads in B and D) and CD3-CD4+ cells (asteriscs in A, B and C) were also observed. Bar scale = 30 µm (TIF)

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a well-established model of multiple sclerosis, is characterised by microglial activation and lymphocyte infiltration. Induction of EAE in Lewis rats produces an acute monophasic disease characterised by a single peak of disability followed by a spontaneous and complete recovery and a subsequent tole...

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a well-established model of multiple sclerosis, is characterised by microglial activation and lymphocytic infiltration. Lymphocytic activation through the antigen presentation process involves three main signals, the first provided by the engagement of major histocompatibility complex molecules (MHC)...

In the current study, we explored the role of TNF cluster cytokines on the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-mediated, synergistic increase in brain injury after hypoxic ischemic insult in postnatal day 7 mice. Pretreatment with moderate doses of LPS (0.3 μg/g) resulted in particularly pronounced synergistic injury within 12 h. Systemic application of LPS a...

Background: Environmental enrichment has emerged as a potential non-invasive strategy that might influence the process of aging as well as the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease.Among social factors, many studies have reported the association between mild-life marital status and cognitive function in l...

CD4 is a molecule commonly expressed on the surface of T-helper lymphocytes with a recognized critical role in the antigen presentation process that has also been reported in monocytes and macrophages, although its role in these cells remains unknown. The objective of the present study was to analyze whether experimental conditions involving a pote...