Abstract: Microglia are brain-resident immune cells that use their ramified processes to survey the brain parenchyma. They maintain brain ho- meostasis by mediating immune responses through cytokine release, phagocytosing pathogens and protein aggregation (Salter et al., 2017). Furthermore, in both healthy and disease states, microglia interacting with neurons regulate synaptic formation, elimination and plasticity (Salter et al., 2017). It is thought that these functions may be altered by environmental stimuli such as lifestyle, stress, infection and air pollu- tion, the effects of which may result in brain dysfunction and the de- velopment of neurodegenerative diseases (Branchi et al., 2014; Hanam- sagar et al., 2017).