Abstract
Objective
To test the hypothesis that the proinflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory
factor (MIF) is elevated in the circulation of patients with chronic spinal cord injury
(SCI) relative to uninjured subjects, and secondarily to identify additional immune
mediators that are elevated in subjects with chronic SCI.
Design
Prospective, observational pilot study.
Setting
Outpatient clinic of a department of physical medicine and rehabilitation and research
institute in an academic medical center.
Participants
Individuals with chronic (>1y from initial injury) SCI (n=22) and age- and sex-matched
uninjured subjects (n=19).
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Plasma levels of MIF, as determined by a commercially available multiplex suspension
immunoassay. The relationship between MIF levels and clinical/demographic variables
was also examined. As a secondary outcome, we evaluated other cytokines, chemokines,
and growth factors.
Results
Plasma MIF levels were significantly higher in subjects with chronic SCI than in control
subjects (P<.001). Elevated MIF levels were not correlated significantly with any one clinical
or demographic characteristic. Subjects with SCI also exhibited significantly higher
plasma levels of monokine induced by interferon-gamma/chemokine C-X-C motif ligand
9 (P<.03), macrophage colony stimulating factor (P<.035), interleukin-3 (P<.044), and stem cell growth factor beta (SCGF-β) (P<.016). Among subjects with SCI, the levels of SCGF-β increased with the time from
initial injury.
Conclusions
These data confirm the hypothesis that MIF is elevated in subjects with chronic SCI
and identify additional novel immune mediators that are also elevated in these subjects.
This study suggests the importance of examining the potential functional roles of
MIF and other immune factors in subjects with chronic SCI.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
AIS (American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale), CTACK (cutaneous T cell–attracting chemokine), GROα (growth-related oncogene alpha), HGF (hepatocyte growth factor), IFN (interferon), IL (interleukin), IL-2Ra (interleukin-2 receptor antagonist), IQR (interquartile range), LIF (leukemia inhibitory factor), MCP-3/CCL7 (monocyte chemoattractant protein 3/chemokine C-C motif ligand 7), MCSF (macrophage colony-stimulating factor), MIF (macrophage migration inhibitory factor), MIG/CXCL9 (monokine induced by IFN-gamma/chemokine C-X-C motif ligand 9), β-NGF (beta-nerve growth factor), SCF (stem cell factor), SCGF-β (stem cell growth factor beta), SCI (spinal cord injury), SDF1-α (stromal-derived factor alpha), TNF (tumor necrosis factor), TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand), UTI (urinary tract infection)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 24, 2013
Footnotes
Supported by institutional funds from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System General Clinical Research Center; and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grant no. M01 RR018535). The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has conferred or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00919581.
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Copyright
© 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
