Spinal acute septic inflammatory change and its clinical significance

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K11076
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Anesthesiology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Tanaka Tomoharu 京都大学, 医学研究科, 講師 (10402893)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 脊髄 / 敗血症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Sepsis-induced inflammatory change in the brain has been precisely investigated, but in contrast, how sepsis influence the spinal cord remain unknown. We studied the inflammatory change induced by sepsis in the mice model, and found that as soon as several hours after LPS intraperitoneal injection, inflammaotry cytokines including IL-1b, IL-6 and TNF-a were drastically expressed in the spinal cord. Histological finding suggested that the resource of those cytokines are glial cells, especially microglia, nor peripheral blood cells. In addition, neuronal cells showed ischemic change concomittant with those inflammatory findings. Our finding suggest that sepsis induces significant inflammaotry reactions in the spinal cord, and those changes could be the cause of nurological dysfunctions.

Free Research Field

麻酔科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

集中治療の進歩により、重症敗血症の生命予後自体は改善しつつあるが、一方で、治療後に運動機能が低下し、社会復帰できにくくなる病態（集中治療後症候群）が問題となっている。今回の研究によって、敗血症の際には、脊髄において強度の炎症性変化が起こりうること、またそれによって運動機能が障害される可能性が明らかとなった。今後敗血症治療を行う上で、脊髄は新しいターゲットとなりうると思われ、特に脊髄の炎症反応を担うグリア細胞、ミクログリアへの理解がさらに深まることが期待される。