Microglial IRF7-induced lipophagy impairment aggravates lipid droplet overload and impedes neurological recovery after ischemic stroke

Description

Jing Yin leads a twelve-author team tracing how fat builds up inside immune cells of the brain after a stroke, in 2026 mouse work. Brain immune cells called microglia normally clear fat droplets through a cleanup process named lipophagy. After a blocked blood vessel stroke, that cleanup stalled and fat droplets piled up for at least three weeks. Re-reading cell-level gene data pointed to a subgroup of microglia high in a regulator called IRF7.

Mice bred to lack IRF7 only in microglia recovered cleanup and shed the fat overload. They also showed stronger nerve connections and better movement recovery after stroke. The same gains appeared in an aged mouse stroke model and in cell tests. The team traced the harm through a target gene, and blocking it eased the cleanup failure too. The work names a drug target for aiding stroke recovery.

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Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13508275