Microglial inhibitory factor (MIF/TKP) mitigates secondary damage following spinal cord injury.

ABSTRACT: Spinal cord injury (SCI) induces an immune response during which microglia, the resident immunocompetent cells of the central nervous system, become activated and migrate to the site of damage. Depending on their state of activation, microglia secrete neurotoxic or neurotrophic factors that influence the surrounding environment and have a detrimental or restorative effect following SCI, including causing or protecting bystander damage to nearby undamaged tissue. Subsequent infiltration of macrophages contributes to the SCI outcome. We show here that suppressing microglia/macrophage activation using the tripeptide macrophage/microglia inhibitory factor (MIF/TKP) reduced secondary injury around the lesion epicenter in the murine dorsal hemisection model of SCI; it decreased the hypertrophic

SUBMITTER: Emmetsberger J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3876729 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature