Your Body Is Making Your Spinal Cord Injury Worse

The Ohio State Medical Center (OSMC) recently published a study online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study explored the effects of the body’s immune response after a spinal cord injury. It was already widely known that immune cells gather and release large amounts of antibodies in spinal fluid around a fresh injury site. Up until the OSMC study was published, no one knew exactly how those antibodies affected the injury. The study revealed that antibodies can actually damage and worsen the spinal cord injury by confusing the immune system into attacking the cells near the injury site as a response.

The study leader, Phillip G. Popovich, discerned a possible solution to the problem they identified. By inhibiting certain antibody-producing cells, the scientists asserted, a spinal cord injury patient might benefit from faster healing and reduced risk of more severe long-term damage. Popovich said, “[The antibodies] may also help explain why the central nervous system does not repair itself efficiently and why other impairments often follow spinal cord injury.”

The study was conducted using anaesthetized mice that had been given moderate spinal injuries. Half of the mice had normal immune systems and the other half had immune systems that did not produce antibodies. The group with the inhibited immune systems showed about 30% smaller areas of injury than the mice with normal functioning immune systems.
more...