There is, to our knowledge, only one human study that has examined cytokine levels within the CSF of patients after acute blunt spinal cord injury. This study examined levels of the eicosanoids, LTC4, TXB2, and 6-keto-PGF1 between 0 and 17 days post-injury, and then again at 6 months post-injury.(Nishisho et al., 1996) These authors found an increase in all three eicosanoids, and found that LTC4 levels correlated to some extent with injury severity. In a study of patients undergoing thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair (possibly inducing ischemic insults to the spinal cord), Kunihara et al. demonstrated increased levels of IL-8 that were independent of serum levels, and in particular noted sustained IL-8 elevation in a patient who unfortunately became paraplegic after the operation.(Kunihara et al., 2001) In a study of CSF from adult patients with severe brain injury, Csuka et al demonstrated increases in IL-10 that were independent of serum IL-10 levels.(Csuka et al., 1999) While direct comparison with the spinal cord tissue is not possible in these human studies, they do suggest that CNS injury is associated with cytokine changes that can be detected in the CSF.