Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1504626
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases Interaction with Inflammation: Biomarkers, Drug Targets, and Personalized Treatments through Multi-omics Data Integration View all 6 articles

Assessment of corticospinal tract damage and cytokines response in early and late stages of acute unilateral brainstem infarction patients

Provisionally accepted
Mengye Shi Mengye Shi 1Huiyou Chen Huiyou Chen 1Xiaojiao Ci Xiaojiao Ci 2Wen Geng Wen Geng 1*Xinyang Qi Xinyang Qi 2*Yu-Chen Chen Yu-Chen Chen 1*Xindao Yin Xindao Yin 1*
  • 1 Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
  • 2 Department of Neurology, Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Acute brainstem infarction is associated with high morbidity and mortality, the integrity of corticospinal tract (CST) detected via diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can assist in predicting the motor recovery of the patients. In addition to the damage caused by ischemia and reperfusion, sterile inflammation also contributes to the brain injury after stroke. However, the changes in CST integrity detected by DTI in acute brainstem infarction have yet to be fully elucidated, and it is still unclear whether sterile inflammation can cause damage to the CST. Methods: In this study, the acute brainstem infarction patients in the early (EABI patients, n=19) and late (LABI patients, n=21) stages and healthy controls (HCs, n=22) are employed. The probabilistic tractography technique was used and the fractional anisotropy (FA) value was chosen to evaluated the integrity of the CST, the IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels in the plasma are measured to evaluate the level of inflammation. Results: Compared to the HCs (F=13.634, pANOVA<0.001), the CST FA values on the infarcted side were abnormally elevated in EABI patients (pLSD=0.003), and decreased in LABI patients (pLSD=0.034). The levels of IL-6 (F=12.311, pANOVA<0.001, EABI vs HCs: pLSD<0.001, LABI vs HCs: pLSD< 0.001), IL-10 (F=11.329, pANOVA<0.001, EABI vs HCs: pLSD< 0.001, LABI vs HCs: pLSD=0.017) and IL-1β (F=15.986, pANOVA< 0.001, EABI vs HCs: pLSD< 0.001, LABI vs HCs: pLSD<0.001) were increased in both EABI and LABI patients, while the IL-17 levels were elevated only in LABI patients (F=4.258, pANOVA=0.019, LABI vs HCs: pLSD=0.027). Among these cytokines, the increased IL-6 (r=0.663, p=0.002) and IL-1β (r=0.615, p=0.005) levels of EABI patients might be related to the elevated CST FA values, while the increased IL-17 (r=-0.599, p=0.004) levels of LABI patients might contribute to the decrease of the CST FA values. Conclusion: Our study reveals that the increased CST FA values in EABI patients may include signals generated by the immune cells which move along the CST. The sterile inflammation may contribute to the impairment of CST integrity in LABI patients.

    Keywords: acute brainstem infarction, Cytokines, corticospinal tract (CST), Probabilistic Tractography, Fractional Anisotropy (FA)

    Received: 01 Oct 2024; Accepted: 14 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shi, Chen, Ci, Geng, Qi, Chen and Yin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Wen Geng, Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
    Xinyang Qi, Department of Neurology, Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
    Yu-Chen Chen, Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
    Xindao Yin, Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.