ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:The glial scar is a major obstacle to the regeneration of the central nervous system, which plays a physical and chemical barrier role to central nervous system regeneration. How to effectively inhibit glial scar formation and promote axonal regeneration has great significance. OBJECTIVE:To explore the effect of the immune response in the formation of the glial scar after spinal cord injury. METHODS:A computer-based online search was performed in the PubMed database and the CNKI database for the articles on the mechanisms of spinal cord injury, immune cel s and spinal cord injury as wel as the glial scar formation after spinal cord injury from January 1990 to January 2013. The key words were “spinal cord injury, immunity, glia scar”in Chinese and English. The languages of the articles were limited in Chinese and English. Final y, 72 articles were included for the further analysis according the inclusion criteria. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After spinal cord injury, the effect of autoimmune response in which stil been much debated. Studies showed that spinal cord injury can cause suppression of cel ular immunity and non-specific immune function, causing immune function decreasing. Monitoring immune indicators and improving immune function have great significance in promoting the ful rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury. Glial scar is the most important factor to prevent the repairing after spinal cord injury. Immune and inflammatory response is the main reason to secondary spinal cord injury. Degree of repair after spinal cord injury mainly depends on the protection of the residual neurons in order to keep them off secondary damage. However, autoimmune T cel s can protect the residual neurons, the specific effect of T lymphocytes in glial scar formation after spinal cord injury is stil unclear, and further exploration is needed.