The good or the bad: an overview of autoantibodies in traumatic spinal cord injury

Infections remain the most common cause ofdeath after traumatic spinal cord injury, likely due to adeveloping immune deficiency syndrome. This, togetherwith a somewhat contradictory development of autoimmu-nity in many patients, are two major components of themaladaptive systemic immune response. Although the localnon-resolving inflammation in the lesioned spinal cord maylead to an antibody formation against autoantigens of theinjured spinal cord tissue, there are also natural (pre-exist-ing) autoantibodies independent of the injury. The way inwhich these autoantibodies with different origins affect theneuronal and functional outcome of spinal cord-injuredpatients is still controversial

Automated summary

Infections and autoimmune reactions are major factors in the immune response after traumatic spinal cord injury, but there is controversy over how autoantibodies affect the neuronal and functional outcome in patients.