Microglial microRNAs mediate sex-specific responses to tau pathology

Sex is a key modifier of neurological disease outcomes. Microglia are implicated in neurological diseases and modulated by miRNAs, but it is unknown whether microglial miRNAs have sex-specific influences on disease. We show that microglial miRNA expression differs in males and females, and loss of miRNAs leads to sex-specific changes in the microglial transcriptome and to tau pathology. These findings suggest microglial miRNAs influence tau pathogenesis in a sex-specific manner. Overall design: Examination of mRNA expression in single cell microglia isolated from female and male Dicer KO P301S tauopathy mouse samples sorted by FACS into 96-well plates. Libraries were prepared using the Smart-Seq2 protocol.