Mocha cells are a rat cochlear microglial cell line. They were developed from an immunomagnetically enriched population of CD11b+ cells from P3 rat cochlea and Immortalised with the 12S E1A gene of adenovirus in a replication-incompetent retroviral vector.Microglia are a unique lineage of mononuclear phagocytic cells that play an essential role in development, immunological defense and in- flammatory processes in the central nervous system. Microglia account for 10-15％ of all cells found within the brain. As the resident macrophage cells, they act as the first and main form of active immune defence in the central nervous system （CNS）.
