Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) induces various complex pathological processes that cause physical impairment and psychological devastation. The two phases of SCI are primary mechanical damage (the immediate result of trauma) and secondary injury (which occurs over a period of minutes to weeks). After the mechanical impact, vascular disruption, inflammation, demyelination, neuronal cell death, and glial scar formation occur during the acute phase. This sequence of events impedes nerve regeneration. In the nervous system, various extracellular secretory factors such as neurotrophic factors, growth factors, and cytokines are involved in these events. In the vascular system, the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) is damaged, allowing immune cells to infiltrate the parenchyma. Later, endogenous angiogenesis is promoted during the subacute phase. In this review, we describe the roles of secretory factors in the nervous and vascular systems following traumatic SCI, and discuss the outcomes of their therapeutic application in traumatic SCI.

Ependymomas are unusual neuroepithelial tumors of the central nervous system that arise from clusters of ependymal cells. In adults, ependymomas are the most common primary spinal cord tumors. Nevertheless, only a few cases of large-cell ependymoma have been documented; these cases often involve the brain. Here, we report the case of a 43-year-old man who had a cervical spinal cord ependymoma with syringomyelia. The giant-cell ependymoma (GCE) in the spinal cord discussed in this case emphasizes the characteristics of GCE and the discrepancy between the pathological appearance, the surgical results, and the clinically good prognosis.