Significant pathways response to osmotic stimuli in the intervertebral disc.

BACKGROUND The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a special tissue localized in the middle of vertebrae and it often experiences osmotic environment to accommodate applied mechanical forces. AIM Here we aim to confirm significant pathways associated with IVD osmotic regulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two different pathway analyses which are named component-based approach and protein-protein interaction (PPI)-based approach are used to identify the significant pathways from the related databases. RESULTS The results showed that neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway was specifically identified based on traditional significant pathway analysis. New significant pathway analysis indicated that ErbB signaling pathway, nucleotide excision repair, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway, and alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism pathway, etc. were all associated with osmotic regulation. Importantly, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway was only significant in the hyper-osmotic dataset, however, alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism pathway in the hypo-osmotic dataset. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that IVD accommodation mechanism is important in response to osmotic stimuli.