Transcriptomic changes upon the formation of a functional "on demand" degradation network in microglia II

We report the exchange of alpha-synuclein aggregates from one cell to another and examined transcriptomic changes following protein exchange. Differential expression (DE) analysis comparing alpha-synuclein-treated with untreated microglia identified alpha-synuclein induceable genes which were linked to inflammation, apoptosis, ER stress and intracellular protein targeting, while downregulated genes included categories related to mitosis, cytoskeleton and vesicle mediated transport. Co-culturing alpha-synuclein treated with untreated microglia largely suppressed the inflammatory and apoptotic phenotype of microglia thereby rescuing cells from cell death. Most importantly, these transprictomic changes were prevented by co-culturing the cells without direct cell-cell contact (transwell). Overall design: Examination of transcriptomic changes in primary microglia treated with alpha-synuclein and cells that were co-cultured either with or without direct cell-cell contact.