Degenerative spinal disorders including low back pain are one of the most common and costly problems for modern society. It has been recognized that these disorders are directly or indirectly associated with intervertebral disc degeneration. The disc is a cartilaginous connective tissue, composed of the nucleus pulposus(NP), annulus fibrosus and endplates, which connects adjacent vertebrae (the...

Estrogenic modulation of pain is an exceedingly complex phenomenon. However, whether estrogen is involved in discogenic low back pain still remains unclear. Here, immunoreactivity staining technique was used to examine the expression level of the estrogen receptors (ERα and ERβ) and a pain related neuropeptide, Substance P in the lumbar intervertebral discs to analyze the relationship between t...

It has previously been demonstrated that disc puncture in the rat induced changes in grooming and wet dog shakes, two behavioral changes that may be linked to discomfort and neuropathic pain. In this study the aim was to separate the effects of disc injury and the epidural presence of nucleus pulposus. Following anesthesia, the L4-5 disc was exposed using a dorsal approach. Ten rats received a ...

It has been observed that puncture of a lumbar disc may induce formation of a nodule on the surface of the disc and osteophytes. It is not known if this is based on the presence of a foreign tissue or specifically by the presence of nucleus pulposus or on the disc injury. In this study these mechanisms were separated by comparing disc puncture with application of nucleus pulposus without disc i...

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...

INTRODUCTION Low back pain is a major economical and social problem nowadays. Intervertebral disc herniation and central degeneration of disc are two major reasons of low back pain that occur because of structural impairment of disc. The intervertebral disc contains three parts as follows : Annulus fibrosus, transitional region, and nucleus pulposus, which forms the central nucleus of the disc....