Role of foam cells and its regulation in influencing the pathological process of spinal cord injury: a review
10.3760/cma.j.cn501098-20231223-00406
- VernacularTitle:泡沫细胞及其调控对脊髓损伤病理进程影响的研究进展
- Author:
Yuchen ZHOU
1
;
Heng WANG
;
Yang LU
;
Tao XU
;
Xiaoqing CHEN
Author Information
1. 南通大学附属医院脊柱外科，南通 226001
- Keywords:
Spinal cord injuries;
Foam cells;
Macrophages;
Inflammation;
Myelin debris
- From:
Chinese Journal of Trauma
2024;40(6):569-576
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Spinal cord injury is a serious disabling disease and its pathological and physiological processes mainly consist of primary and secondary injury. Primary injury is mainly caused by instantaneous mechanical injury while secondary injury is chiefly triggered by long-term inflammatory cascade reactions. With myelin sheath damaged in primary mechanical injury and secondary inflammatory injury, there was a large amount of cholesterol-rich myelin debris in the damaged area, which is mainly swallowed by bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs). Owing to the limited capacity for processing cholesterol and insufficient efflux pump function of BMDMs, a large number of intracellular lipid droplets composed of neutral fat will be formed, as a result of which BMDMs show a"foamlike"shape and develop into foam cells. Foam cells further aggravate the local inflammation of the injury, prolong the inflammation and promote the formation of local scars, thus hindering nerve regeneration and recovery of sensory and motor functions. Currently, there has been no comparatively complete summary concerning the formation, mechanism of action, intervention of foam cells in spinal cord injury. To this end, the authors reviewed the research progress on the influence and regulation of foam cells on the pathological process of spinal cord injury, hoping to provide new ideas for the related basic research and clinical treatment of spinal cord injury.
