There has been an explosion of new findings recently giving us insights into the involvement of microglia in central nervous system (CNS) disorders. A host of new molecular tools and mouse models of disease are increasingly implicating this enigmatic type of nervous system cell as a key player in conditions ranging from neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and chronic pain. Contemporaneously, diverse roles are emerging for microglia in the healthy brain, from sculpting developing neuronal circuits to guiding learning-associated plasticity. Understanding the physiological functions of these cells is crucial to determining their roles in disease. Here we focus on recent developments in our rapidly expanding understanding of the function, as well as the dysfunction, of microglia in disorders of the CNS.

中文翻译：

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小胶质细胞正在成为脑部疾病的中心参与者。

最近，大量新发现使我们深入了解了小胶质细胞与中枢神经系统（CNS）疾病的关系。许多新的分子工具和疾病小鼠模型越来越多地暗示这种神秘的神经系统细胞在从自闭症等神经发育疾病到阿尔茨海默氏病和慢性疼痛等神经退行性疾病的各种疾病中起关键作用。同时，从雕刻发育中的神经元回路到指导学习相关的可塑性，健康大脑中的小胶质细胞正在发挥着不同的作用。了解这些细胞的生理功能对于确定其在疾病中的作用至关重要。在这里，我们以对功能以及功能障碍的迅速扩展的理解为重点，关注最近的发展。