Spinal cord injury is a highly prevalent condition associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The pathophysiology underlying it is extraordinarily complex and still not completely understood. We performed a comprehensive literature review of the pathophysiologic processes underlying spinal cord injury. The mechanisms underlying primary and secondary spinal cord injury are distinguished based on a number of factors and include the initial mechanical injury force, the vascular supply of the spinal cord which is associated with spinal cord perfusion, spinal cord autoregulation, and post-traumatic ischemia, and a complex inflammatory cascade involving local and infiltrating immunomodulating cells. This review illustrates the current literature regarding the pathophysiology behind spinal cord injury and outlines potential therapeutic options for reversing these mechanisms.
Over time, various treatment modalities for spinal cord injury have been trialed, including pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods. Among these, replacement of the injured neural and paraneural tissues via cellular transplantation of neural and mesenchymal stem cells has been the most attractive. Extensive experimental studies have been done to identify the safety and effectiveness of this transplantation in animal and human models. Herein, we review the literature for studies conducted, with a focus on the human-related studies, recruitment, isolation, and transplantation, of these multipotent stem cells, and associated outcomes.
Should businesses be allowed to deny services based on their strongly held religious beliefs? Despite the recent Supreme Court Case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado, this question of the right to discriminate remains unanswered. Given the currently ambiguous legal area, it is important to understand whether the public supports these laws. The current study examines both general support for the law and under what conditions people support it. The service provided and the religion of the service provider were both manipulated while religiosity and system justification were examined as potential moderators. Service type was the only significant experimental predictor of support, with participants less supportive of the law when reading about a marriage certificate being denied due to religious reasons than a wedding cake and a wedding ceremony being denied. Religiosity, but not system justification, moderated the relationship between service type and support for the law.
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