Dynamics between M1 and M2 microglial phenotypes not fully understood

Determine the temporal dynamics between the M1 (pro-inflammatory) and M2 (anti-inflammatory) microglial phenotypes in the ischemic penumbra following middle cerebral artery occlusion-induced ischemic stroke in mice, quantifying how the detrimental M1 and beneficial M2 phenotypes evolve relative to each other over time.

Background

The paper investigates microglial activation in the penumbra after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-induced ischemic stroke using data-driven modeling approaches (SINDy and ESINDy) paired with Bayesian uncertainty quantification. Microglia can adopt two phenotypes: M1 (generally detrimental) and M2 (generally beneficial).

The authors explicitly acknowledge that the temporal dynamics between these phenotypes are not fully understood, motivating their development of predictive models from compiled murine MCAO time-series data to infer and forecast phenotype-specific cell counts over time.