Microglial TNFα controls GABAAR plasticity, slow waves and memory consolidation during sleep

Microglia sense the changes in their environment. How microglia actively translate these changes into suitable cues to adapt brain physiology is unknown. We reveal an activity-dependent regulation of cortical inhibitory synapses plasticity by microglia, driven by purinergic signaling acting on P2RX7 and mediated by microglia-derived TNFα. We demonstrate that sleep induces this microglia-dependent inhibitory plasticity by promoting synaptic enrichment of GABAARs. We further show that in turn, microglia-specific depletion of TNFα alters slow waves during NREM sleep and blunts sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Together, our results reveal that microglia orchestrate sleep-intrinsic plasticity of inhibitory synapses, ultimately sculpting sleep slow waves and memory.