Spinal cord injury induced immune depression syndrome

Infections are among the leading causes of death in spinal cord injured patients and are associated with hampered wound healing, prolonged hospitalization and impaired neurological recovery. We have analyzed fluctuations of immune cell populations in an experimental rat model of spinal cord injury (SCI) by FACS analysis compared to sham operated controls to detect the responses specifically induced by SCI. Further to illustrate the impact of SCI only animals did not receive myethylprednisolone in order to exclude confounding iatrogenic factors. Experimental SCI of rats induced a depletion of ED9+ monocytes (