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Al-Sammarraie et al. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2021;8:53-63 Neuroimmunology
DOI: 10.20517/2347-8659.2020.34 and Neuroinflammation

Editorial Open Access

Bone morphogenic protein signaling in spinal cord
injury

Nadia Al-Sammarraie, Swapan K. Ray

Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC
29209, USA.
Correspondence to: Prof. Swapan K. Ray, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of South Carolina
School of Medicine, 6439 Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, SC 29209, USA. E-mail: swapan.ray@uscmed.sc.edu
How to cite this article: Al-Sammarraie N, Ray SK. Bone morphogenic protein signaling in spinal cord injury. Neuroimmunol
Neuroinflammation 2021;8:53-63. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-8659.2020.34

Received: 24 Apr 2020 Accepted: 30 Apr 2020 Fisrt online: 4 Sep 2020 Published: 21 Mar 2021
Science Editor: Gang Zhao Copy Editor: Jing-Wen Zhang Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a debilitating injury that results from traumatic or non-traumatic insults to the spinal
cord, causing significant impairment of the patient’s activity and quality of life. Bone morphogenic proteins
(BMPs) are a group of polyfunctional cytokines belonging to the transforming growth factor beta superfamily
that regulates a wide variety of cellular functions in healthy and disease states. Recent studies suggest that
dysregulation of BMP signaling is involved in neuronal demyelination and death after traumatic SCI. The focus
of this article is to describe our current understanding of the role of BMP signaling in the regulation of cell fate,
proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, and inflammation in traumatic SCI. First, we will describe the expression of
BMPs and pattern of BMP signaling before and after traumatic SCI in rodent models and in vitro. Next, we will
discuss the role of BMP in the regulation of neuronal and glial cell differentiation, survival, functional recovery from
traumatic SCI, and the gap in knowledge in this area that requires further investigation to improve SCI prognosis.

Keywords: Spinal cord injury, bone morphogenic protein, apoptosis, proliferation, autophagy, differentiation,
inflammation

INTRODUCTION
Spinal cord injury (SCI) can be either traumatic or non-traumatic damage to the spinal cord and has a
[1-3]
peak prevalence of approximately 906-1800 cases per million people in the United States . SCI usually
[4]
causes complete or partial motor and sensory neurological deficits with deleterious outcomes . Traumatic
SCI can be caused by major trauma to the spinal cord following road traffic accidents, falls in the elderly,
[1,3]
and violent and sport-related injuries . Non-traumatic SCI usually result from ischemic-reperfusion
© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
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