Introduction: In health, the intervertebral disc is generally avascular and sparsely innervated. Those few nerves and blood vessels present are generally restricted to the outer areas of the annulus fibrosus where they lie predominantly between concentric layers of matrix (called lamellae). During disc degeneration, however, many more nerves are seen within the annulus, often in association wit...

It has been proposed that intervertebral disc degeneration might be caused by low-grade infection. The purpose of the present study was to assess the incidence of herpes viruses in intervertebral disc specimens from patients with lumbar disc herniation. A polymerase chain reaction based assay was applied to screen for the DNA of eight different herpes viruses in 16 patients and two controls. DN...

BACKGROUND Abnormal intervertebral movements of spine have been reported to be associated with trauma and pathological conditions. The importance of objective spinal motion imaging assessment in the frontal plane was frequently underestimated. The clinical evaluation of the segmental motion contribution could be useful for detecting the motion pattern of individual vertebrae. Therefore the purp...

AIMS This study is to determine if expression level of microRNA-143 (miR-143) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) are related to the occurrence and development of degenerative scoliosis. METHODS A total of 30 patients with degenerative scoliosis, 30 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis were enrolled in this study. For control, 30 patients with spinal burst fractures were also enrolled in th...

conclusion adc, fa, and t2* values may quantitatively reflect the microstructural characteristics of np, therefore they could be used to detect the minimal changes of early ldd. results the adc, fa, and t2* values were different (p < 0.05) among different rois within the same disc or among corresponding rois in different level discs. while the average values of adc increased regularly with the ...

objective(s): activation of acid-sensing ion channel 1a (asic1a) is responsible for tissue injury caused by acidosis in nervous systems. but its physiological and pathological roles in nucleus pulposus cells (npcs) are unclear. the aim of this study is to investigate whether asic1a regulates the survival of npcs in the acidic environment of degenerated discs. materials and methods: npcs were is...

INTRODUCTION The regulation and elevation in expression of the catabolic matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is of high importance in the human intervertebral disc since upregulation of these matrix-degrading enzymes results in matrix destruction associated with disc degeneration. MMP28 (epilysin) is a newly discovered MMP believed to play a role in matrix composition and turnover in skin. It is p...