Adrenal and pituitary hormone patterns after spinal cord injury

Current evidence indicates that the neuroendocrine system is the highest re gulator of immune! inflammatory reactions. We hypothesized that immune alte rations, which were related to the level of injury, found in a cohort of sp inal cord-injured subjects may be influenced by altered hormonal patterns p ostinjury. Therefore, we investigated aspects of both pituitary and adrenal function in the same cohort of spinal cord-injured subjects. We found sign ificant elevations in both cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate in c hronic spinal cord-injured survivors compared with their able-bodied age- a nd gender-matched controls. Levels of dehydroepiandrosterone, adrenocortico tropin, and prolactin were not different in spinal cord-injured subjects ov erall compared with their controls. Both dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and dehydroepiandrosterone were higher in tetraplegics compared with their con trols, but we found no such differences in paraplegics compared with their controls. When the two groups of spinal cord-injured subjects were compared with each other, we also found differences between these two subject group s in dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and dehydroepiandrosterone (higher in t he tetraplegics compared with paraplegics). We found no differences between either group of spinal cord-injured subjects and their controls for adreno corticotropin, prolactin, or cortisol. These data suggest that some hormona l differences between subjects and their controls may be further related to the level of injury (specifically dehydroepiandrosterone and dehydroepiand rosterone). Finally, we investigated correlations within subjects for the a bove hormones. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and prolactin were highly cor related (the higher the dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, the higher the prol actin) but only in the tetraplegic subjects.