Macrophage migration inhibitory factor facilitates production of CCL5 in astrocytes following rat spinal cord injury

Astrocytes act as immune effector cells with the ability to produce a wide array of chemokines and cytokines in response to various stimuli. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is inducibly expressed in injured spinal cord contributing to excessive inflammation that affects motor functional recovery. Unknown is whether MIF can facilitate inflammatory responses through stimulating release of chemokines from astrocytes following spinal...