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Microglia Rank signaling regulates GnRH neuronal function and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.

Overview

21 affiliations
  1. Tumor Biology and Immunology Program, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), 28029 Madrid, Spain
  2. Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBiS), Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío/CSIC/Universidad de Sevilla, 41013 Seville, Spain
  3. Department of Medical Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of Seville, 41009 Seville, Spain
  4. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), 28029 Madrid, Spain
  5. Service of Endocrinology, Diabetology, and Metabolism, Lausanne University Hospital; Lausanne 1011, Switzerland
  6. Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne; Lausanne 1005, Switzerland
  7. Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba/Hospital Universitario Reina Sofia; 14004 Córdoba, Spain
  8. Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, University of Córdoba; 14071 Córdoba, Spain
  9. CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III; 14004 Córdoba, Spain
  10. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), 28029 Madrid, Spain
  11. Grupo Fisiopatología Endocrina, Departamento de Endocrinología, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela, Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago (CHUS/SERGAS), 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  12. Department of Molecular Neuropathology, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), 28049 Madrid, Spain
  13. Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94304, California, United States
  14. Department of Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetology, and Metabolism Unit, CHUV; Lausanne 1005, Switzerland
  15. Departamento de Biología Celular, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, 41009 Seville, Spain
  16. Oncobell, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, IDIBELL; 08908 Barcelona, Spain
  17. Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics, The Francis Crick Institute; NW1 1AT London, United Kingdom
  18. Centre for Endocrinology, William Harvey Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, E1 4NS London, UK
  19. Tumor Microenvironment and Immunomodulation Unit, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28222 Madrid, Spain
  20. Lille University, Inserm, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition, UMR-S 1172, Labex DistAlz, 59000 Lille, France
  21. Laboratory of Development and Plasticity of the Neuroendocrine Brain, FHU 1000 Days for Health, EGID, 59045 Lille, France
Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.), volume 392, issue 6800, article eaeb6999
Dates: published online 21 May 2026; in print 21 May 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1126/science.aeb6999 · PMID 41818388 · PMCID PMC7619046 · OpenAlex W7135011673
Open access: green, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Categories: human (organism), mouse (organism), cellular / molecular (subfield)
Methods: Statistics, Connectivity
MeSH: Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone*, Hypogonadism*, Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis*, Microglia*, Neurons*, Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-kappa B*, Animals, Female, Fertility, Gonads, Humans, Hypothalamus, Kisspeptins, Male, Median Eminence, Mice, Sexual Maturation, Signal Transduction (* major topic)
Topic: Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones (Reproductive Medicine, Medicine), according to OpenAlex
Funding: European Association for Cancer Research (EACR-907); Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PID2023-149244NB-I00, II.4 PPIT, PID2022-138957NB-I00, PID2020-116441GB-I00, PID2023-152798OB-I00, SAF2017-86117-R); Cancer Research UK (CC0103); Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation-Agencia Estatal de Investigación (FPU2018/00546, PID2023-149244NB-I00, PRE2018-086522); Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid (P2022/BMD-7393); Wellcome Trust (CC0103); Caixa Research Health 2023 Grants La Caixa Foundation (HR23-00361); Medical Research Council (CC0103); Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CP24_00036); European Research Council (682935)
Citations: cited by 1 paper (Europe PMC); 103 references in the paper

Abstract

The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPG) controls pubertal development, sexual maturation, and fertility. We identified a role of hypothalamic microglia in controlling the HPG axis through Rank signaling. Whole-body and microglia Rank depletion led to hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) resulting from an alteration in gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neuron function. In addition, we identified rare gene variants of RANK in patients with HH. Transcriptional profiling upon Rank loss revealed defective microglia activation and morphological alterations in the median eminence, decreasing the contacts and engulfment of GnRH terminal projections and impairing GnRH neuronal responses to kisspeptin. Overall, our data uncover the microglia as regulator of GnRH neuronal function through Rank signaling, with potential implications for reproductive maturation and fertility.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data and to no code of its authors: see the Data section.

Tracing map

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Data

Datasets cited

Data and materials availability

The scRNAseq results obtained in this work have been deposited at GEO, GSE240379. Mouse strains used in this study are subject to a Material Transfer Agreement and can be shared upon reasonable request and in accordance with the corresponding institutional regulations. The rest of the data used in the preparation of the manuscript are available in the main text or in the supplementary material file.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

  • Publisher: n/a → American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Authors: added Beatriz Romero-de la Rosa (0009-0003-0432-247X); removed Beatriz Romero-de la Rosa

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 26 authors, 18 MeSH terms, 10 funders, 99 references.

Cite

This paper

Collado-Sole, A., Borjini, N., Zhai, J., Ruiz-Pino, F., Soria-Alcaide, G., Folgueira, C., García-Vilela, C., la Rosa, B. R.-d., Lopez, V., Zouaghi, Y., Jacobs, A., Mora-Romero, B., Barranco, A., Yoldi, G., Rizzoti, K., Sabio, G., Perez-Chacon, G., Santamaria, P. G., Esteban, J. A., . . . Gonzalez-Suarez, E. (2026). Microglia Rank signaling regulates GnRH neuronal function and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Science (New York, N.Y.), 392(6800), eaeb6999. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aeb6999

BibTeX

@article{colladosole2026microglia,
author = {Collado-Sole, Alejandro and Borjini, Nozha and Zhai, Jing and Ruiz-Pino, Francisco and Soria-Alcaide, Gonzalo and Folgueira, Cintia and García-Vilela, Celia and la Rosa, Beatriz Romero-de and Lopez, Victor and Zouaghi, Yassine and Jacobs, An and Mora-Romero, Bella and Barranco, Alexandra and Yoldi, Guillermo and Rizzoti, Karine and Sabio, Guadalupe and Perez-Chacon, Gema and Santamaria, Patricia G and Esteban, Jose Antonio and Journiac, Nathalie and Prevot, Vincent and Pascual, Alberto and Fernández-Chacón, Rafael and Tena-Sempere, Manuel and Pitteloud, Nelly and Gonzalez-Suarez, Eva},
title = {{Microglia Rank signaling regulates GnRH neuronal function and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis}},
journal = {Science (New York, N.Y.)},
year = {2026},
month = may,
volume = {392},
number = {6800},
pages = {eaeb6999},
publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science},
issn = {0036-8075},
doi = {10.1126/science.aeb6999},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aeb6999},
pmid = {41818388},
pmcid = {PMC7619046}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Collado-Sole, Alejandro
AU - Borjini, Nozha
AU - Zhai, Jing
AU - Ruiz-Pino, Francisco
AU - Soria-Alcaide, Gonzalo
AU - Folgueira, Cintia
AU - García-Vilela, Celia
AU - la Rosa, Beatriz Romero-de
AU - Lopez, Victor
AU - Zouaghi, Yassine
AU - Jacobs, An
AU - Mora-Romero, Bella
AU - Barranco, Alexandra
AU - Yoldi, Guillermo
AU - Rizzoti, Karine
AU - Sabio, Guadalupe
AU - Perez-Chacon, Gema
AU - Santamaria, Patricia G
AU - Esteban, Jose Antonio
AU - Journiac, Nathalie
AU - Prevot, Vincent
AU - Pascual, Alberto
AU - Fernández-Chacón, Rafael
AU - Tena-Sempere, Manuel
AU - Pitteloud, Nelly
AU - Gonzalez-Suarez, Eva
TI - Microglia Rank signaling regulates GnRH neuronal function and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis
T2 - Science (New York, N.Y.)
J2 - Science
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/21
VL - 392
IS - 6800
SP - eaeb6999
SN - 0036-8075
PB - American Association for the Advancement of Science
DO - 10.1126/science.aeb6999
UR - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aeb6999
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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"issued": {
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}

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