Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a structural and functional disruption of the spinal cord caused by various factors, leading to neurological dysfunction. As a common central nervous system disorder in clinical practice, SCI poses significant risks to human life and health. Its pathological mechanism is exceedingly complex, involving multiple pathological processes. Given the irreversibility of primary injury, targeting secondary injury has gradually become the main direction for the clinical treatment of SCI in recent years. Recent studies have highlighted the crucial role of blood-spinal cord barrier damage and microvascular dysfunction in the progression of secondary injury following SCI. Therefore, investigating the pathological mechanisms of microcirculation and exploring targeted therapies could provide valuable insights for clinical SCI treatment. This paper aims to provide an objective review of the role of microcirculation in SCI, identify the critical regulators of microvascular function, and summarize strategies for treating SCI by targeting microcirculation. The findings of this study may offer novel references for the clinical management of SCI.

spinal cord injury;microcirculation;blood-spinal cord barrier;regulators;targeted therapy