Kurpad Lab
Dr. Shekar Kurpad
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a relatively frequent event; estimates suggest that 12,500 new cases of SCI occur every year in the US alone. In the US, approximately 276,000 persons live with SCI, which has a huge impact on their lives and families, and has tremendous socioeconomic and medical costs. The main causes for SCI are motor vehicle accidents (38%), falls (30%), acts of violence (14%), and sports injuries (9%) (National SCI Database).
Red blood cells (RBCs), which are present in the spinal cord tissue due to the hemorrhage, are taken up by phagocytic cells like macrophages. This can result in increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, factors that activate immune cells. Previous experiments have shown the relevance of some of these factors after SCI. For example, the absence of one of these cytokines, TNF, leads to a better recovery in mice after SCI and reduces inflammatory activation of cells at the injury site. However, these extent of these results suggests that other factors also contribute to the tissue damage.
We are now attempting to investigate further mechanisms contributing to the secondary tissue damage, including other cytokines and chemokines which may play a role after SCI. We aim to modulate these and investigate the effect on recovery after SCI.
Ultimately, our goal is a translational treatment approach to reduce secondary damage after injury and to improve the outcome and quality of life after SCI. In summary, the broad goal of my research is to investigate and modulate the inflammatory tissue response after spinal cord injury (SCI) with the aim to reduce the secondary damage and thereby to improve the functional outcome after SCI.
Ongoing Studies
Completed Studies
Recent Publications
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(Boerger TF, Hyngstrom AS, Furlan JC, Kalsi-Ryan S, Curt A, Kwon BK, Kurpad SN, Fehlings MG, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Guest JD, Wilson JR, Davies BM, Kotter MRN, Koljonen PA.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):97S-108S PMID: 35174735 PMCID: PMC8859699 02/18/2022
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(Davies BM, Mowforth O, Wood H, Karimi Z, Sadler I, Tetreault L, Milligan J, Wilson JRF, Kalsi-Ryan S, Furlan JC, Kawaguchi Y, Ito M, Zipser CM, Boerger TF, Vaccaro AR, Murphy RKJ, Hutton M, Rodrigues-Pinto R, Koljonen PA, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Kurpad SN, Guest JD, Wilson JR, Kwon BK, Kotter MRN, Fehlings MG.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):28S-38S PMID: 35174734 PMCID: PMC8859708 02/18/2022
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(Rodrigues-Pinto R, Montenegro TS, Davies BM, Kato S, Kawaguchi Y, Ito M, Zileli M, Kwon BK, Fehlings MG, Koljonen PA, Kurpad SN, Guest JD, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Wilson JR, Kotter MRN, Harrop JS.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):147S-158S PMID: 35174733 PMCID: PMC8859702 02/18/2022
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(Tetreault L, Mowforth O, Khan DZ, Gronlund T, Garwood P, Hazenbiller O, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Kurpad SN, Guest JD, Wilson JR, Kwon BK, Fehlings MG, Davies BM, Kotter MRN, AO Spine RECODE-DCM Steering Committee and AO Spine RECODE-DCM Consortium.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):19S-27S PMID: 35174731 PMCID: PMC8859709 02/18/2022
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(Davies BM, Phillips R, Clarke D, Furlan JC, Demetriades AK, Milligan J, Witiw CD, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Kurpad SN, Guest JD, Wilson JR, Kwon BK, Vaccaro AR, Fehlings MG, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Kotter MRN.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):122S-129S PMID: 35174730 PMCID: PMC8859704 02/18/2022
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(Davies BM, Mowforth O, Gharooni AA, Tetreault L, Nouri A, Dhillon RS, Bednarik J, Martin AR, Young A, Takahashi H, Boerger TF, Newcombe VF, Zipser CM, Freund P, Koljonen PA, Rodrigues-Pinto R, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Wilson JR, Kurpad SN, Fehlings MG, Kwon BK, Harrop JS, Guest JD, Curt A, Kotter MRN.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):78S-96S PMID: 35174728 PMCID: PMC8859710 02/18/2022
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(Nouri A, Tessitore E, Molliqaj G, Meling T, Schaller K, Nakashima H, Yukawa Y, Bednarik J, Martin AR, Vajkoczy P, Cheng JS, Kwon BK, Kurpad SN, Fehlings MG, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Guest JD, Davies BM, Kotter MRN, Wilson JR.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):39S-54S PMID: 35174726 PMCID: PMC8859703 02/18/2022
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(Gharooni AA, Kwon BK, Fehlings MG, Boerger TF, Rodrigues-Pinto R, Koljonen PA, Kurpad SN, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Wilson JR, Davies BM, Kotter MRN, Guest JD.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):109S-121S PMID: 35174725 PMCID: PMC8859698 02/18/2022
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(Mowforth OD, Khan DZ, Wong MY, Pickering GAE, Dean L, Magee J, Mullarkey L, Hirayama Y, Rihova M, Butler M, Stewart M, Goulson B, Ahmed S, Fricke K, Popa-Nimigean V, Millar Z, Venkatesh A, Willison A, Senthil K, Hazenbiller O, Sarewitz E, Sadler I, Gronlund T, Tetreault L, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Kurpad SN, Guest JD, Wilson JR, Kwon BK, Fehlings MG, McNair AGK, Davies BM, Kotter MRN, AO Spine RECODE-DCM Steering Committee and AO Spine RECODE-DCM Consortium.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):8S-18S PMID: 34879754 PMCID: PMC8859701 12/10/2021
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(Martin AR, Tetreault L, Nouri A, Curt A, Freund P, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Wilson JR, Fehlings MG, Kwon BK, Harrop JS, Davies BM, Kotter MRN, Guest JD, Aarabi B, Kurpad SN.) Global Spine J. 2022 Feb;12(1_suppl):130S-146S PMID: 34797993 PMCID: PMC8859711 11/20/2021
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(Mowforth OD, Khan DZ, Wong MY, Pickering GAE, Dean L, Magee J, Mullarkey L, Hirayama Y, Rihova M, Butler M, Stewart M, Goulson B, Ahmed S, Fricke K, Popa-Nimigean V, Millar Z, Venkatesh A, Willison A, Senthil K, Hazenbiller O, Sarewitz E, Sadler I, Gronlund T, Tetreault L, Harrop JS, Aarabi B, Rahimi-Movaghar V, Kurpad SN, Guest JD, Wilson JR, Kwon BK, Fehlings MG, McNair AGK, Davies BM, Kotter MRN.) Global Spine Journal. February 2022;12(1_suppl):8S-18S SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85121360907 02/01/2022
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A biomechanical investigation of lumbar interbody fusion techniques.
(Umale S, Yoganandan N, Baisden JL, Choi H, Kurpad SN.) J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2022 01;125:104961 PMID: 34781226 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85118900449 11/16/2021