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 chromium51 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.
Similar content being viewed by others
Log in or create a free account to read this content
Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com
or
References
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Perna FM, Schneiderman N, LaPerriere A . Psychological stress, exercise and immunity. Int J Sports Med 1997; 18 (Suppl 1): S78–S83.
Nash MS . Immune dysfunction and illness susceptibility after spinal cord injury: an overview of probable causes, likely consequences, and potential treatments. J Spinal Cord Med 2000; 23: 109–110.
Nash MS . Known and plausible modulators of depressed immune functions following spinal cord injuries. [Review] [95 refs]. J Spinal Cord Med 2000; 23: 111–120.
Shi F, Van Kaer L . Reciprocal regulation between natural killer cells and autoreactive T cells. Nat Rev Immunol 2006; 6: 751–760.
Cooper MA, Fehniger TA, Caligiuri MA . The biology of human natural killer-cell subsets. Trends Immunol 2001; 22: 633–640.
Iversen PO . Blood flow to the haemopoietic bone marrow. Acta Physiol Scand 1997; 159: 269–276.
Rameshwar P . Substance P: a regulatory neuropeptide for hematopoiesis and immune functions. Clin Immunol Immunopathol 1997; 85: 129–133.
Broome CS, Miyan JA . Neuropeptide control of bone marrow neutrophil production. A key axis for neuroimmunomodulation. Ann NY Acad Sci 2000; 917: 424–434.
Broome CS, Whetton AD, Miyan JA . Neuropeptide control of bone marrow neutrophil production is mediated by both direct and indirect effects on CFU-GM. Br J Haematol 2000; 108: 140–150.
Iversen PO, Hjeltnes N, Holm B, Flatebo T, Strom-Gundersen I, Ronning W et al. Depressed immunity and impaired proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells in patients with complete spinal cord injury. Blood 2000; 96: 2081–2083.
Iversen PO, Nicolaysen A, Hjeltnes N, Nja A, Benestad HB . Preserved granulocyte formation and function, as well as bone marrow innervation, in subjects with complete spinal cord injury. Br J Haematol 2004; 126: 870–877.
King A, Jokhi PP, Burrows TD, Gardner L, Sharkey AM, Loke YW . Functions of human decidual NK cells. Am J Reprod Immunol 1996; 35: 258–260.
Takahashi K, Aranami T, Endoh M, Miyake S, Yamamura T . The regulatory role of natural killer cells in multiple sclerosis. Brain 2004; 127 (Part 9): 1917–1927.
Matsumoto Y, Kohyama K, Aikawa Y, Shin T, Kawazoe Y, Suzuki Y et al. Role of natural killer cells and TCR gamma delta T cells in acute autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Eur J Immunol 1998; 28: 1681–1688.
Antel J, Owens T . Multiple sclerosis and immune regulatory cells. Brain 2004; 127 (Part 9): 1915–1916.
Acknowledgements
The study is supported by PVA Spinal Cord Research Foundation Grant 2161 and the National Institutes of Health K24 HD043819-01A1. We thank Dr Richa Sood for her assistance in preparing this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Campagnolo, D., Dixon, D., Schwartz, J. et al. Altered innate immunity following spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 46, 477–481 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2008.4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2008.4
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
COVID-19 tsunami: the first case of a spinal cord injury patient in Italy
Spinal Cord Series and Cases (2020)
-
Spinal cord injury causes chronic bone marrow failure
Nature Communications (2020)
-
Chronic spinal cord injury attenuates influenza virus-specific antiviral immunity
Journal of Neuroinflammation (2016)
-
Immune dysfunction and chronic inflammation following spinal cord injury
Spinal Cord (2015)
-
Circulating T cell subsets are altered in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury
Immunologic Research (2015)
