The role of Zinc in the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19H03771
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 56010:Neurosurgery-related
• Research Institution: Osaka University (2020-2021); Kyushu University (2019)
• Principal Investigator: Okada Seiji 大阪大学, 医学系研究科, 教授 (30448435)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 脊髄損傷 / 亜鉛 / 二次損傷 / 予後予測

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we examined the role of zinc in the pathophysiology for the spinal cord injury (SCI) by using FACS and laser-microdissection. We revealed that the number of infiltrating monocytes after SCI were strongly correlated to the severity of injury and that zinc is the key factor of the inflammatory response in infiltrating monocytes, suggesting that zinc could be a useful biomarker for predicting the functional outcome. We confirmed that the acute-phase serum zinc concentration could predict the long-term functional outcome with high accuracy in both an animal experiment and a human prospective cohort study, which will help physicians determine the optimum therapeutic and rehabilitation protocols as well as evaluate the therapeutic intervention efficacy within the very acute phase. We also revealed that low serum zinc levels deteriorated the pathological and functional outcome in mice SCI model, suggesting that the zinc treatment could be the therapeutic option for SCI.

Free Research Field

整形外科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

脊髄損傷に対する治療法が数多く研究されているが、不全麻痺であればかなりの自然回復が見られるため、どの程度が治療による効果か不明であった。我々は、血清亜鉛濃度が予後を予測できるバイオマーカーであることを明らかにすると同時に、低亜鉛状態が脊髄損傷の病態を悪化させることを解明した。これらの結果は、脊髄損傷治療研究に於いて新しい知見を与える有意義な結果であると言える。