“APOE4/4 is linked to damaging lipid droplets in Alzheimer’s microglia.”
Michael Haney, et al. – Stanford University.
This study found that human microglia, like their murine counterparts, form lipid droplets (LDs) in AD. The formation of LDs in response to amyloid-beta requires APOE, with the APOE4 allele exacerbating this effect. Conditioned media from LD-rich APOE4 microglia induced tau aggregation and caspase activation in cultured human neurons, suggesting that LD-laden microglia have neurotoxic effects that affect AD pathology.
