Gut microbial catalog reveals systemic inflammation drivers in spinal injury

"We tend to think of spinal cord injury as a problem that begins and ends in the spinal cord, but our work suggests that we need to think much more broadly," said co-senior author Phillip Popovich, professor and chair of neuroscience in Ohio State's College of Medicine.

"The tricky part is looking at a really complex ecosystem like the gut microbiome to figure out which microbes, or microbe-to-microbe interactions, are important for the health of the host – the person with a spinal cord injury," Kigerl said.

"Although these studies used selective spinal cord injuries to model traumatic injury, the implications extend beyond trauma. Many neurological diseases, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease and ALS, can disrupt the neural pathways that allow the brain, spinal cord and internal organs to communicate," said Popovich, also executive director of the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury and director of the Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair. "Understanding how those changes affect the gut may therefore reveal mechanisms relevant to a much broader range of neurological conditions. And unlike the brain or spinal cord, the gut is relatively easy to access and modify, creating an exciting opportunity for practical, well-tolerated treatments that could improve health and recovery."

Source:

The Ohio State University