Clinical neurosurgery
The most recent articles from:
Clin Neurosurg
-
Clinical neurosurgery · Jan 2005
Synthes Award for Resident Research on Spinal Cord and Spinal Column Injury: granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) prevents apoptosis and improves functional outcome in experimental spinal cord contusion injury.
Granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a potent hematopoietic cytokine, which stimulates stem cell proliferation in the bone marrow and inhibits apoptotic cell death in leukocytes. However, the effects of GM-CSF in the central nervous system are still unclear. The present study was undertaken to determine if GM-CSF can rescue neuronal cells from apoptosis and improve neurologic function in a spinal cord injury (SCI) model. ⋯ Treatment of SCI with GM-CSF showed some beneficial effects. Neuronal protection against apoptosis is viewed as a likely mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of GM-CSF in SCI.