ABSTRACT
Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (TSCI) is damage of the spinal cord resulting in devastating loss of motor and sensory functions. This injury involves complex pathological mechanisms with massive oxidative stress and extensive inflammatory processes, which can bear the risk for permanent paraplegia (Alizadeh et al. 2019). Selenium (Se) is an essential factor for neuronal development, protects from neuron degeneration, and plays a key role in the antioxidative defense. Selenoprotein P (SELENOP) is the transport protein of Se and an essential survival factor for neurons (Pitts et al. 2014). Copper (Cu) serves as an important catalytic cofactor in redox chemistry, e.g., in superoxide dismutase or cytochrome C oxidase. Other copper-containing proteins are relevant for fundamental biological functions, such as lysyl oxidase for the maturation of the extracellular matrix or ceruloplasmin (CP) for the transport of Cu throughout the system. CP accounts for 95% of the Cu content in serum and protects tissue from iron-mediated oxidative damage (Guengerich 2018). Notably, serum Se via SELENOP and Cu via CP are inversely regulated in infection and acute phase response. As TSCI is associated with severe inflammation, we decided to study the potential alterations of the Se and Cu status as potential diagnostic and predictive parameters, as there is a clinical need for informative biomarkers particularly during the first 24 h after injury.
