Functional differences between microglia and monocytes after ischemic stroke

In summary, the resident microglia population is vulnerable to the effects of severe ischemia, show compromised cell cycle progression, and adopt a largely pro-inflammatory phenotype after stroke. Infiltrating monocytes are primarily involved with early debris clearance of dying cells. These findings suggest that the early wave of infiltrating monocytes may be beneficial to stroke repair and future therapies aimed at mitigating microglia cell death may prove more effective than attempting to elicit targeted anti-inflammatory responses from damaged cells.