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Persons with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury Have Decreased Natural Killer Cell

pattismith

pattismith

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J Neurotrauma. 2018 Aug 1

Persons with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury Have Decreased Natural Killer Cell and Increased Toll-Like Receptor/Inflammatory Gene Expression.
Herman P1, Stein A2, Gibbs K1,2, Korsunsky I3, Gregersen P3,4, Bloom O1,2,4.


Abstract
Infections are the leading cause of death for individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).

Along with increased infection rates, inflammation is often also observed in persons with chronic SCI.

Together, immunological changes post-SCI are also poised to impede neurological recovery and mediate common medical consequences of SCI, including atherogenesis and neuropathic pain.

The molecular mechanisms contributing to increased infection susceptibility and inflammation in persons living with SCI are poorly understood. Here, we used tools of functional genomics to perform a pilot study to compare whole-blood gene expression in individuals with chronic SCI (≥1 year from initial injury; N = 31) and uninjured individuals (N = 26).

We identified 1815 differentially expressed genes in all SCI participants and 2226 differentially expressed genes in persons with SCI rostral to thoracic level 5, compared to uninjured participants.

This included marked downregulation of natural killer cell genes and upregulation of the proinflammatory Toll-like receptor signaling pathway.

These data provide novel mechanistic insights into the causes underlying the symptoms of immune dysfunction in individuals living with SCI.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6033303/
 
pattismith

pattismith

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Impaired Neuroimmune Interactions after SCI May Contribute to Increased Rates of Infection and Chronic Inflammation

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) innervates most visceral organs (heart, lung, liver, and intestine) and also regulates immune system function (spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow) (Figure 1).
In able-bodied people, the ANS regulates homeostasis through synergistic and coordinated activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) (Pavlov and Tracey, 2017). In persons with SCI, impaired ANS regulation of organ systems below the injury level are associated with serious medical consequences, ranging from autonomic dysreflexia to adverse changes in metabolism (Bauman and Spungen, 2000).
A growing body of evidence shows that the ANS also regulates immune system function.
Both the PNS and SNS innervate immune organs, such as the spleen and lymph nodes, and there are many points of regulated interaction between the nervous and immune systems throughout the body (Pavlov and Tracey, 2017).
Based on these physiological interactions, a causal relationship has been proposed between SCI level-dependent changes in the ANS and changes in immune system function that include chronic inflammation, changes in adaptive immunity and immunosuppression (Schwab et al., 2014).

SNS fibers exit the spinal cord and innervate organs of the immune system at T5, and persons with spinal cord injuries rostral to T5 have the most immunological symptoms






1561738238963.png



Figure 1
Neuroimmune interactions relevant to spinal cord injury (SCI).

(A) Sensory dermatomes that are innervated at each spinal level are indicated by color, which matches the color scheme in B.
(B) Schematic representation of the brain and spinal cord that demonstrates spinal levels contributing autonomic nervous system (ANS) innervation to visceral organs and immune system tissues.
Dark blue lines show nerve fibers carrying parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) innervation via the vagus nerve.
Other lines show nerve fibers carrying sympathetic nervous system (SNS) innervation to target organs following synapses at the sympathetic trunk, shown in black immediately to the right of the spinal column. Color Key: Green: Cervical, pink: thoracic, orange: lumbar, blue: sacral.
(C) Able-bodied (AB) individuals or individuals with chronic SCI were recruited for this study and blood collected for whole blood gene expression.
(D) There were 1815 and 2226 differentially expressed genes between the AB and SCI groups and the AB and T5 and above SCI group (upper). A cartoon of a heat map is shown for differentially expressed genes that were then analyzed at the individual, pathway and modular levels (lower).
 
Daffodil

Daffodil

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Last edited:
Daffodil

Daffodil

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5,875
I have wondered why people with spinal cord injury often die early despite having the best care, exercises, etc. like Christopher reeves had. This would explain it
 
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