RNA-seq analysis of transcriptomic changes in macrophage-lineage cells after acute neural injury in larval zebrafish

Both brain-resident microglia and peripheral macrophages are important cellular effectors of the inflammatory response to neural injury. They respond to neural injury by secreting a wide range of effector molecules including cytokines, chemokines and neurotrophic factors. To identify additional secreted signalling molecules, we used RNA-seq gene expression profiling to detect changes in the transcriptome of macrophage-lineage cells after acute neural injury in larval zebrafish. GO term analysis was then used to analyse the list of differentially expressed genes and identify secreted signalling molecules among them. Overall design: The transcriptomes of FACS-purified macrophage-lineage cells from mpeg1:GFP transgenic zebrafish larvae with or without neural injury were compared.