Concentration-dependent effects of CSF1R inhibitors on oligodendrocyte progenitor cells ex vivo and in vivo

Microglia are the principal resident immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS) and play important roles in CNS development, maintenance and repair. The survival and development of microglia depends on colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R), a member of the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) family of tyrosine kinases. Recently pharmacological CSF1R inhibition has been used to investigate the effects of microglial depletion in numerous animal models of CNS disease. However, the effects of CSF1R inhibitors on other cell types in the CNS remains incompletely characterized. In this report, we compared the effect of two commonly used CSF1R inhibitors, PLX5622 and PLX3397, on microglia and oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) numbers. In ex vivo cerebellar slices and adult mouse brain, both PLX compounds caused robust microglia loss; the kinetics of microglial depletion was more rapid with PLX5622. While high-doses of PLX5622 and PLX3397 reduced OPC number in primary cultures in vitro and ex vivo, low-doses of PLX5622 did not affect the number of OPCs or mature oligodendroglia in culture or in vivo. In adult mice, treatment with PLX5622 had no effect on OPC numbers for 7 days; however, a mild reduction was observed after 21 days in some CNS regions. In contrast, PLX3397 caused significant OPC loss after 7 days of treatment, despite only modest microglia depletion. Neither PLX compound had a remarkable effect on mature oligodendrocytes or myelin protein expression following long-term oral administration. Our results show that CSF1R inhibition with PLX5622 can selectively deplete microglia ex vivo and in vivo without affecting OPC number, demonstrating that microglia are not essential for OPC viability in ex vivo slice cultures or adult CNS tissues.