Serotonin, Cyclooxygenase-2, and Some Biochemical Parameters in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Spinal cord injury is still a serious disease that affects people throughout the world and the purpose of this study was aimed to investigate the influence of Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and Serotonin (SERT) in sera of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The study also included cholesterol, calcium, and sodium as biochemical tests for risk development. SERT was determined using (ELISA) kit, COX-2 enzyme was determined using an assay for the peroxidase activity in serum of spinal cord injury patients based on a colorimetric procedure and the other biochemical parameters, Cholesterol was determined using spectrophotometric assays, Ca and Na were determined using Atomic number. The study included sixty patients with acute SCI and thirty healthy people as control. The differences in age were non-significant between the two groups (P>0.05). The results have shown significant (P<0.05) levels of SERT between SCI patients and controls. COX-2 level was significantly higher (P<0.05) in the serum of SCI patients compared to control.  Cholesterol Parameter was significantly different (P<0.05) between the two groups. Furthermore, SCI patients exhibited significantly (P<0.05) higher calcium and sodium levels than control patients. COX-2 has shown a significant positive moderate correlation with SERT and a negative weak correlation with age in SCI patients. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) test has shown that SERT, COX-2, Ca, and Na were good markers for diagnosing SCI in serum. In conclusion, patients with acute SCI have elevated COX-2 levels, which may result from the inflammatory induction due to tissue damage and taking part in pain following the injury.