Being regarded as one kind of specialized tissue macrophages in central nervous system, microglia plays a key role in maintenance of retinal integrity and function.However, recent investigations have revealed that microglia has migrated in the brain before the vascular network formation.Besides their role of immunological modulation in inflammation response, it also has strong effects on shaping vasculature during development and remolding vessels in pathological processes.Microglia contact with the angiogenic vessel, promoting the anastomoses of sprouts.Interestingly, reciprocal interactions between microglia and endothelial cells have been a hot topic.Secreted exosomes can offer a vehicle for the exchange of information between cells engaged in angiogenesis.Notch signaling also plays an important role in cell-to-cell communication during angiogenesis.The participation of microglia in retinal blood vessel formation has received little attention to date.Additional basic studies may ultimately clarify the significance of this cell and provide valuable therapeutic insight into treatment for retinal pathological neovascularization.In this review, we focued on the origin of microglia and summarize how the crosstalk between microglia and endothelial cells modulate the physical development of vessel and angiogenesis.

Microglia; Retinal angiogenesis; Neovascularization