{"id":395574,"date":"2023-12-22T08:12:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T13:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/spinal-cord-injury-triggers-muscle-wasting-study-finds-drugs-com-mednews\/"},"modified":"2023-12-24T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T20:35:15","slug":"spinal-cord-injury-triggers-muscle-wasting-study-finds-drugs-com-mednews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/spinal-cord-injury-triggers-muscle-wasting-study-finds-drugs-com-mednews\/","title":{"rendered":"Spinal Cord Injury Triggers Muscle Wasting, Study Finds – Drugs.com MedNews","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm<\/a>. Last updated on Dec 22, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter<\/p>\n

FRIDAY, Dec. 22, 2023 — A spinal cord injury<\/a> can trigger muscle wasting in patients, causing them to drop more weight and muscle mass than can be explained solely by their paralysis, a new study in mice warns.<\/p>\n

This muscle wasting is rapid and severe, and it appears to be linked to a hormone imbalance caused by the injury, researchers said.<\/p>\n

Specifically, it depends on whether a person\u2019s adrenal glands lose their ability to receive nerve signals following a spinal cord injury along a person\u2019s upper spine, researchers said.<\/p>\n

This phenomenon could explain why relatively thin patients have a much higher risk of death following a spinal cord injury, said researcher Dr. Jan Schwab<\/a>, a professor of neurology at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a better understanding of this muscle wasting and aggravated weight loss, we hope to explore new ways to reduce deaths in this fragile patient population,\u201d Schwab said in a university news release.<\/p>\n

When the adrenal glands are deprived of nervous system control, the body becomes flooded with excess levels of the stress hormone cortisol, researchers found.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis hypercortisolism then acts on specific receptors in the muscle of the entire body to cause muscle loss,\u201d said lead researcher Markus Harrigan<\/a>, a member of Schwab\u2019s research lab and Ohio State\u2019s dual-degree MD-PhD Medical Scientist Training Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterfering with this pathway could rescue muscle tissue and improve the response to rehabilitation,\u201d Harrigan added.<\/p>\n

The study, published Dec. 20 in the journal Science Translational Medicine<\/a>,<\/em> builds on previous Ohio State research into the effects of a spinal cord injury on the immune system. These injuries tend to suppress the immune system and increase a person\u2019s risk of infections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now start to understand how an injury of the spinal cord leads to spinal cord disease affecting the entire body,\u201d Schwab said. However, research in animals doesn’t always pan out in humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur future research will search for ways to block these complications and protect the adrenal gland from receiving \u2018false\u2019 autonomic nervous system information originating from the spinal cord below the lesion site,\u201d Schwab continued.<\/p>\n

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Sources<\/h2>\n