Systemic humoral factors participating in the course of spinal cord injury

Systemic humoral factors have been studied in traumatic, chronic and acute spinal cord injured patients. Antibodies specific to nervous system autoantigens were detected in a majority of the sera obtained from these patients, at different periods after injury. Limited in vitro sprouting of dorsal root ganglia in chicken embryos was observed in the presence of serum from these patients. The possible association between growth inhibiting factors and the presence of antibodies against nervous tissue autoantigens is discussed.