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Review
. 2023 Feb 28:11:tkac054.
doi: 10.1093/burnst/tkac054. eCollection 2023.

Role of inflammation in neurological damage and regeneration following spinal cord injury and its therapeutic implications

Yan Jin  1   2 , Yixing Song  1 , Jiaqi Lin  3 , Tianqing Liu  4 , Guicai Li  1 , Biqin Lai  5   6 , Yun Gu  1 , Gang Chen  3 , Lingyan Xing  1
Affiliations
Review

Role of inflammation in neurological damage and regeneration following spinal cord injury and its therapeutic implications

Yan Jin et al. Burns Trauma. .

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an incurable trauma that frequently results in partial or complete loss of motor and sensory function. Massive neurons are damaged after the initial mechanical insult. Secondary injuries, which are triggered by immunological and inflammatory responses, also result in neuronal loss and axon retraction. This results in defects in the neural circuit and a deficiency in the processing of information. Although inflammatory responses are necessary for spinal cord recovery, conflicting evidence of their contributions to specific biological processes have made it difficult to define the specific role of inflammation in SCI. This review summarizes our understanding of the complex role of inflammation in neural circuit events following SCI, such as cell death, axon regeneration and neural remodeling. We also review the drugs that regulate immune responses and inflammation in the treatment of SCI and discuss the roles of these drugs in the modulation of neural circuits. Finally, we provide evidence about the critical role of inflammation in facilitating spinal cord neural circuit regeneration in zebrafish, an animal model with robust regenerative capacity, to provide insights into the regeneration of the mammalian central nervous system.

Keywords: Axon regeneration; Cell death; Immune response; Inflammation; Inflammatory drugs; Neurological damage; Spinal cord injury; Trauma; Zebrafish.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cellular events following SCI over time. Damage and cellular events, as well as immune cell activation, are revealed. Primary injury triggers a pathophysiological cascade, including the secondary injury stage. Secondary injury begins as early as a few minutes after the initial trauma and is divided into three stages: acute, subacute and chronic injury. The changes of various cells (neutrophils, microglia, monocytes/macrophages, lymphocytes and NK cells) in the process of SCI are marked. This Figure is modified from [11,99] with permission. SCI spinal cord injury, NK cells natural killer cells
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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