{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T07:19:09Z","timestamp":1762240749475,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762214400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Bioinform."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Recent advances in Alzheimer\u2019s research suggest that the brain\u2019s immune system plays a critical role in the development and progression of this devastating disease. Microglial cells are vital as immune cells in the brain\u2019s defense system. Human Microglia Clone 3 (HMC3) is a cell line developed as a promising experimental model to understand the role of microglial cells in human diseases including Alzheimer\u2019s and other neurodegenerative diseases. The frequency of HMC3 cell usage has increased in recent years, with the idea that this cell line could serve as a convenient model for human microglial cell functions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We utilized gene-pair ratios from bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) expression data to create predictive models of cell-type origins.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our model reveals that the HMC3 cell line represents various cell types, with the highest cell similarity score relating to astrocytes, not microglia.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings suggest that the HMC3 cell line is not a reliable human microglia model and that extreme caution should be taken when interpreting the results of studies using the HMC3 cell line.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fbinf.2025.1681811","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T07:14:34Z","timestamp":1762240474000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Cellf-deception: human microglia clone 3 (HMC3) cells exhibit more astrocyte-like than microglia-like gene expression"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Kylee K.","family":"Rahm","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Branden S.","family":"Kinghorn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Myanna J.","family":"Moody","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Ben C.","family":"Stone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Kenton C.","family":"Strong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Brian S.","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Yen Jou","family":"Chang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Samantha N.","family":"Sleight","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Alyssa A.","family":"Nitz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"David V.","family":"Hansen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Matthew H.","family":"Bailey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"278","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2017.03.042","article-title":"IPSC-derived human microglia-like cells to study neurological diseases","volume":"94","author":"Abud","year":"2017","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3214633","DOI":"10.1155\/jimr\/3214633","article-title":"Chemically induced senescence prompts functional changes in human microglia-like cells","volume":"2025","author":"Armanville","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. 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