Transcriptome of Irradiated Microglia (24 hours)

Whole brain irradiation remains important in the management of brain tumors. Although necessary for improving survival outcomes, cranial irradiation also results in cognitive decline in long-term survivors. A chronic inflammatory state characterized by microglial activation has been implicated in radiation-induced brain injury, and here we present a comprehensive transcriptional profile of irradiated microglia at 24 hours following radiation therapy. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) was used to isolate CD11b+ microglia from the hippocampi of C57BL/6 and Balb/c mice 24 hours after 10Gy cranial irradiation. RNA-seq was used to evaluate the transcriptome, which was compared to the transcriptome of microglia at 1 month following radiation therapy (GSE55968).