Resident microglia from adult mice are refractory to nitric oxide-inducing stimuli due to impaired NOS2 gene expression

Abstract

Microglia are the immunoregulatory cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and share many characteristics with resident macrophages in extracerebral tissues. Nitric oxide (NO) is secreted by macrophages following induction of the NO synthase gene NOS2 by stimuli elicited during a T-cell response and/or by microbial products. NO regulates both innate and adaptive immune responses, such as killing intracellular pathogens and inhibiting T-cell proliferation. Regulation of NO production by microglia, however, is poorly understood. We find that microglia from healthy adult mice produce negligible amounts of NO compared with resident macrophages during restimulation of peptide-specific CD8 T cells, and therefore cannot block T-cell proliferation. The impaired NO response extends to exogenous NOS2-inducing stimuli, including cytokines, CD40 ligation, and lipopolysaccharide. In contrast, microglia produce proinflammatory cytokines in response to these same stimuli, and therefore possess a relatively selective block in NO production. We go on to show that resident microglia fail to produce detectable levels of either the NOS2 enzyme or NOS2 RNA in response to NO-inducing stimuli. We therefore propose that microglia in the healthy adult brain exist in an "NO-incompetent" state in which NO production is blocked at the level of NOS2 RNA. The inability of resident microglia in the healthy CNS to produce NO may allow these immunoregulatory cells to modulate immune processes temporally, and may serve to protect the CNS from irreparable damage at the onset of infection or injury.