PURPOSE To quantify the delayed contrast agent enhancement in the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc by means by T1 relaxation time measurements, and to correlate the enhancement with visual grading of disc degeneration. Diffusion of nutrients through the endplate is a key factor in tissue viability in the intervertebral disc. It can be simulated in vivo using magnetic resonance imagin...

Degeneration of the intervertebral discs, a process characterized by a cascade of cellular, biochemical, structural and functional changes, is strongly implicated as a cause of low back pain. Current treatment strategies for disc degeneration typically address the symptoms of low back pain without treating the underlying cause or restoring mechanical function. A more in-depth understanding of d...

STUDY DESIGN In vitro cell culture. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of high glucose on autophagy in adult rat intervertebral disc cells. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Diabetes mellitus is considered to be an important etiologic factor for intervertebral disc degeneration, resulting in degenerative disc diseases. A glucose-mediated increase of autophagy is a major ca...

Dear editor: We present two cases of high signal intervetebral disc in T1-weighted MRI with the differential diagnoses. The first case was a 60-year-old obese man who presented with back pain. The patient underwent an MR examination with a 0.3T permanent scanner (Hitachi, IRIS-II Japan). Spin–echo T1W, T2W images in orthogonal planes and STIR sequences were also obtained (Fig. 1). Hypersignal i...

Rationale There is no optimal treatment available for symptomatic degenerative disc disease which affects millions of elderly people worldwide. Most commonly used treatment modality is only symptomatic pain relief by drugs. An alternative approach is the surgical correction of intervertebral disc (IVD). Engineering of in vitro intervertebral disc composites of predefined size and shape starting...

Discal cyst is an intraspinal cyst with a distinct communication with the corresponding intervertebral disc. It is a rare condition and could present with radiculopathy similar to that caused by lumbar disc herniation. We present a patient with a large discal cyst in the ventrolateral epidural space of the 5(th) lumbar vertebral (L5) level that communicated with the adjacent 4(th) lumbar and 5(...

STUDY DESIGN A new recombinant adenoviral vector expressing Sox9, a chondrocyte-specific transcription factor, was tested in a chondroblastic cell line and primary human intervertebral disc cells in vitro. Direct infection of intervertebral disc cells then was assessed in a rabbit model. OBJECTIVES To deliver a potentially therapeutic viral vector expressing Sox9 to degenerative human and rab...

OBJECTIVE To set up a natural degeneration model of chondrocytes derived from endplate of intervertebral discs of rats in order to offer an appropriate carrier for the study on mechanism of intervertebral disc degeneration. METHODS The method of enzyme digestion combined with natural subculture was used to set up the in vitro natural degeneration model of chondrocytes derived from the endplat...

Low back pain is a clinical and public health problem affecting more than half of the population. Disc degeneration is a major source of low back pain. Long-term exposure to whole body vibration or sedentary work postures may have high association with disc degeneration. It is hypothesized that there is a preferential frequency for vibrational loading, which may increase the efficiency for flui...