The accumulation of senescent disc cells in degenerative intervertebral disc (IVD) suggests the detrimental roles of cell senescence in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). Disc cell senescence decreased the number of functional cells in IVD. Moreover, the senescent disc cells were supposed to accelerate the process of IDD via their aberrant paracrine effects by which sen...

Intervertebral disk degeneration is a common and potentially debilitating disease process affecting millions of Americans and other populations each year. Current treatments address resultant symptoms and not the underlying pathophysiology of disease. This has spawned the development of biologic treatments, such as gene therapy, which attempt to correct the imbalance between catabolism and anab...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Accurate identification of the NP in MR images is crucial to properly and objectively assess the intervertebral disk. Therefore, computerized segmentation of the NP in T2WI is necessary to produce repeatable and accurate results with minimal user input. MATERIAL AND METHODS A semiautomated CS method was developed to identify the NP in T2WI on the basis of intensity diff...

even though intervertebral disc degeneration can be found in the natural course of alkaptonuria, detection of the disease by black disc color change in a patient without any other presentation of alkaptonuria is an exceptionally rare condition. we have reported a very rare case of alkaptonuria presented with low back pain and steppage gait in a 51-year-old male with a complaint of chronic low-b...

Transplantation of activated nucleus pulposus (NP) cells obtained by coculturing NP cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells having cell-to-cell contact has been shown to be effective in animal models and, more recently, in human clinical trials. If the NP cells can be cryopreserved, then autologous cell transplantation could be offered to patients as and when required. In a previous stu...

1 Gawri, R; Mwale, F; Ouellet, J; Steffen, T; 3 Roughley, PJ; Antoniou, J; + Haglund, L +McGill University, Montreal, Canada, McGill Scoliosis and Spine Center, Montreal, Canada, 3 Shriners Hospital for Children, Montreal, Canada. Senior author: [email protected] Introduction Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a common cause of back pain. Back pain affects a large portion of the p...

Early signs of degenerate intervertebral discs include a decrease in the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content within the nucleus pulposus and the annulus fibrosus, which has been linked to an alteration in the mechanics of the disc. However, the mechanisms for this reduction in GAG are currently unknown. An animal model that demonstrates disc degeneration would be useful not only for understanding t...

3 Department of Orthopaedics, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY A lack of understanding of the degeneration process has limited treatments aimed at halting or reversing intervertebral disc degeneration. An animal model that replicates key features of human disc degeneration is needed for both elucidating the mechanisms as well as for preclinical testi...

BACKGROUND The natural, inflammatory repair processes of an injured intervertebral degenerative disc can propagate further injury and destruction. While there are many different treatment modalities of the pain related to degenerative disc disease, none are actually reparative in nature. Treatment strategies to repair a degenerative disc without inducing a destructive inflammatory milieu have b...