Microglia are the resident macrophages of the central nervous system and are associated with the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative and brain inflammatory diseases; however, the origin of adult microglia remains controversial. We show that postnatal hematopoietic progenitors do not significantly contribute to microglia homeostasis in the adult brain. In contrast to many macrophage populations, we show that microglia develop in mice that lack colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) but are absent in CSF-1 receptor–deficient mice. In vivo lineage tracing studies established that adult microglia derive from primitive myeloid progenitors that arise before embryonic day 8. These results identify microglia as an ontogenically distinct population in the mononuclear phagocyte system and have implications for the use of embryonically derived microglial progenitors for the treatment of various brain disorders.

Summary Although classified as hematopoietic cells, tissue- resident macrophages (MFs) arise from embryonic precursors that seed the tissues prior to birth to generate a self-renewing population, which is maintained independently of adult hematopoiesis. Here we reveal the identity of these embryonic precursors using an in utero MF-depletion strategy and fate-mapping of yolk sac (YS) and fetal liver (FL) hematopoiesis. We show that YS MFs are the main precursors of microglia, while most other MFs derive from fetal monocytes (MOs). Both YS MFs and fetal MOs arise from erythro-myeloid progenitors (EMPs) generated in the YS. In the YS, EMPs gave rise to MFs without monocytic intermediates, while EMP seeding the FL upon the establishment of blood circulation acquired c-Myb expression and gave rise to fetal MOs that then seeded embryonic tissues and differentiated into MFs. Thus, adult tissue- resident MFs established from hematopoietic stem cell-independent embryonic precursors arise from two distinct developmental programs.

Langerhans cell precursors initially arise from yolk sac progenitors, but are later superseded by fetal liver monocytes.

The origin of the mammalian lymphatic vasculature has been debated for more than 100 years. Whether lymphatic endothelial cells have a single or dual, venous or mesenchymal origin remains controversial. To resolve this debate, we performed Cre/loxP-based lineage-tracing studies using mouse strains expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the Tie2, Runx1, or Prox1 promoter elements. These studies, together with the analysis of Runx1-mutant embryos lacking definitive hematopoiesis, conclusively determined that from venous-derived lymph sacs, lymphatic endothelial cells sprouted, proliferated, and migrated to give rise to the entire lymphatic vasculature, and that hematopoietic cells did not contribute to the developing lymph sacs. We conclude that the mammalian lymphatic system has a solely venous origin.[Keywords: Lymphatic endothelial cells; lymphangiogenesis; Prox1; mouse; lineage tracing; Runx1] Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

The first haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) appear in the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region, major vitelline and umbilical vessels, and placenta; however, whether they arise locally or from immigrant yolk sac precursor cells remains unclear. This issue is best addressed by measuring cell-lineage relationships rather than cell potentials. To undertake long-term in vivo tracing of yolk sac cells, we designed a non-invasive pulse-labelling system based on Cre/loxP recombination. Here we show that in Runx1(+/-) (runt-related transcription factor 1) heterozygous mice, yolk sac cells expressing Runx1 at embryonic day 7.5 develop into fetal lymphoid progenitors and adult HSCs. During mid-gestation the labelled (embryonic day 7.5) yolk sac cells colonize the umbilical cord, the AGM region and subsequently the embryonic liver. This raises the possibility that some HSCs associated with major embryonic vasculature are derived from yolk sac precursors. We observed virtually no contribution of the labelled cells towards the yolk sac vasculature, indicating early segregation of endothelial and haematopoietic lineages.