The role of cytokine signaling in pathophysiology for spinal cord injury

Although many cytokines are involved in the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury (SCI), the role of each cytokine remains elusive.Many lines of evidence have indicated that the excess inflammation elicited by pro-inflammatory cytokines exhibit neuronal and glial toxicity and that administration of several anti-inflammatory drugs can prevent this extensive secondary injury.Besides targeting secondary injury, modulating cytokine signaling is also an attractive therapeutic strategy as differentiational regulator for neural stem/ progenitor cells.Here, we review the role of cytokine signaling which are both deleterious and beneficial in the pathophysiology for spinal cord injury, with an emphasis on the role of IL-6 signaling.Rec.1/25/2008, Acc.