Spinal cord injury is a serious disease of the central nervous system, but there is no effective treatment. And zinc is an essential nutrient for human body and participates in many physiological processes, such as immune response, homeostasis, oxidative stress, cell cycle progression, DNA replication, DNA damage repair, apoptosis, and aging. This article mainly summarizes that zinc could predict the prognosis and treat the spinal cord injury. Especially, zinc could help to inhibit inflammation, regulate autophagy, and reduce oxidative stress. However, excessive zinc will damage neurons.
Keywords: Autophagy; Inflammation; Neuron; Oxidative stress; Spinal cord injury; Zinc.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.