APOE and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: To determine whether selected genes related to homeostatic microglia (TMEM119) and DAM state (TREM2, TYROBP, APOE, MS4A, CD33, LPL and SPP1) were differentially expressed in the spinal cord of ALS patients versus controls, mRNA expression levels were measured via RT-qPCR in a cohort of 20 neuropathologically characterized ALS patients and 18 control donors.