Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Jul;46(7):477-81.
doi: 10.1038/sc.2008.4. Epub 2008 Feb 12.

Altered innate immunity following spinal cord injury

D I Campagnolo  1 , D Dixon, J Schwartz, J A Bartlett, S E Keller
Affiliations

Altered innate immunity following spinal cord injury

D I Campagnolo et al. Spinal Cord. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Study design: Cross-sectional, paired cohort study.

Objectives: To replicate the finding of impaired immunocyte function following spinal cord injury (SCI). To determine whether cellular immune function in SCI subjects with decentralized sympathetic nervous system (SNS) (T6 and above) varies from SCI subjects with intact SNS (below T6).

Setting: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.

Method: In vitro immune assays: (1) natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity using a K562 target cell line in a 4-h chromium(51) release assay. The mean of three samples for each effector-to-target (E:F) ratio (25:1, 50:1, 100:1) was used in the analyses. (2) Cell enumeration was performed using commercially available antibodies and standard flow cytometry techniques.

Results: Participation of 36 SCI subjects and 36 individually age- and sex-matched healthy controls. SCI subjects were stratified into two groups, that is, neurologic level of injury (NLI) at T6 or above (26 subjects) and NLI below T6 (10 subjects). No statistically significant differences were identified between NLI T6 and above and NLI below T6 groups for the NK cytotoxicity assay. There was a statistically significant reduction in NK cell numbers in all subjects with SCI as compared to their paired controls. There was a statistically significant reduction in NK cell cytotoxicity in SCI subjects, relative to the controls for E:F ratio of 100:1 (F=6.18, d.f.=34, P=0.02).

Conclusion: We replicated the finding of decreased NK cell number and cytotoxicity in SCI subjects. The mechanism behind these findings needs to be further investigated, with the long-term goal of developing therapeutic strategies to improve immune function.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cell counts (mean K per microliter, s.d.) by standard flow cytometry techniques using commercially available antibodies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percent cell types of the total lymphocyte population (mean ± s.e.m.).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Natural killer (NK) cell activity (mean ± s.e.m.) in spinal cord injury (SCI) subjects (hashed line) and control subjects (solid line). Percent kill of target K562 cells on y axis and effector-to- target (E:F) cell ratio on x axis. This graded effect size was expected, and explained by a less than optimal E:F ratios that range from 100:1 to 25:1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. DeVivo MJ, Krause JS, Lammertse DP. Recent trends in mortality and causes of death among persons with spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1999;80:1411–1419. - PubMed
    1. Cardenas DD, Hoffman JM, Kirshblum S, McKinley W. Etiology and incidence of rehospitalization after traumatic spinal cord injury: a multicenter analysis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2004;85:1757–1763. - PubMed
    1. Campagnolo DI, Keller SE, DeLisa JA, Glick TJ, Sipski ML, Schleifer SJ. Alteration of Immune system function in tetraplegics: a pilot study. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 1994;73:387–393. - PubMed
    1. Campagnolo DI, Bartlett JA, Keller SE, Sanchez W, Oza R. Impaired phagocytosis of Staphylococcus aureus in complete tetraplegics. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 1997;76:276–280. - PubMed
    1. Campagnolo DI, Bartlett JA, Keller SE. Influence of neurological level on immune function following spinal cord injury: a review. J Spinal Cord Med. 2000;23:121–128. - PubMed

Publication types