I found an issue while using ABC Whole Mouse Brain Atlas to analyze microglia gene expression. In 334 microglia NN, Map2 was highly expressed, with about 23% (19918/86200) of cells showing this. Since Map2 is a neuron marker, this suggests misclassified cells in 334 microglia NN, which severely impacts the evaluation of microglia gene expression.
Hi, Zhutx7
While Map2 is recognized as neuronal markers, there is considerable expression of Map2 in NN populations as well, although the levels of expression are definitively lower in NN compared to neurons. While 23% cells expressing Map2 might seem high in Microglia, it is expressed >95% in neurons, and these statistics can be highly dependent on the resolution of gene detection of the platform used. It is also possible there is some ambient expression of Map2 in NN coming from the neurons. For Microglia, they can be categorized by many distinct markers such as C1qa,Tmem119, so they are verl well categorized.