- Somebang, Kerri;
- Rudolph, Joshua;
- Imhof, Isabella;
- Li, Luyi;
- Niemi, Erene C;
- Shigenaga, Judy;
- Tran, Huy;
- Gill, T Michael;
- Lo, Iris;
- Zabel, Brian A;
- Schmajuk, Gabriela;
- Wipke, Brian T;
- Gyoneva, Stefka;
- Jandreski, Luke;
- Craft, Michael;
- Benedetto, Gina;
- Plowey, Edward D;
- Charo, Israel;
- Campbell, James;
- Ye, Chun Jimmie;
- Panter, S Scott;
- Nakamura, Mary C;
- Eckalbar, Walter;
- Hsieh, Christine L
In traumatic brain injury (TBI), a diversity of brain resident and peripherally derived myeloid cells have the potential to worsen damage and/or to assist in healing. We define the heterogeneity of microglia and macrophage phenotypes during TBI in wild-type (WT) mice and Ccr2-/- mice, which lack macrophage influx following TBI and are resistant to brain damage. We use unbiased single-cell RNA sequencing methods to uncover 25 microglia, monocyte/macrophage, and dendritic cell subsets in acute TBI and normal brains. We find alterations in transcriptional profiles of microglia subsets in Ccr2-/- TBI mice compared to WT TBI mice indicating that infiltrating monocytes/macrophages influence microglia activation to promote a type I IFN response. Preclinical pharmacological blockade of hCCR2 after injury reduces expression of IFN-responsive gene, Irf7, and improves outcomes. These data extend our understanding of myeloid cell diversity and crosstalk in brain trauma and identify therapeutic targets in myeloid subsets.