MicroRNAs play an important role in the etiology and progression of many diseases, including intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD). The miRNA miR-129-5P regulates autophagy in various cancers, but its role in human nucleus pulposus (NP) cells is unclear. The present study investigated whether miR-129-5p regulates the expression of Beclin-1 which is known to induce autophagy in NP cells by eva...

BACKGROUND The progression of disc degeneration is generally believed to be associated with low back pain and/or degenerative lumbar diseases, especially in the elderly. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate changes in lumbar disc height using radiographic measurements and to investigate risk factors for development of disc height narrowing of the elderly. METHODS From 1997...

Lumbar disc disease characterized by symptomatic disc herniation or typical sciatica is a major challenge for health care. Its prevalence was studied as part of the Mini-Finland Health Survey in a sample of over 7000 Finnish adults. A diagnosis of lumbar disc syndrome based on medical history, symptoms, and standardized physical examination was made for 5.1% of the men and for 3.7% of the women...

J Bone Joint Surg [Br] 2009;91-B:713-19. Cervical spinal disc replacement is used in the management of degenerative cervical disc disease in an attempt to preserve cervical spinal movement and to prevent adjacent disc overload and subsequent degeneration. A large number of patients have undergone cervical spinal disc replacement, but the effectiveness of these implants is still uncertain. In mo...

Background: A large proportion of patients presenting with lumbar disc disease are opium addicts in our region. It was, therefore, hypothesized that morphine might affect the intervertebral disc. We investigated the histological findings of morphine dependency on intervertebral discs in rat. Methods: Forty NMRI adult male rats (230-250 g) placed on ordinary diet and received aqueous solution of...

STUDY DESIGN Prospective clinical study. PURPOSE To observe the usefulness of anterior cervical osteophytes as intrinsic markers for spinal level localization (SLL) during sub-axial cervical spinal surgery via the anterior approach. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Various landmarks, such as the mandibular angle, hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage, first cricoid ring, and C6 carotid tubercle, are used for...

Degenerative disc disease (DDD) of the cervical spine is common after middle age and can cause loss of disc height with painful nerve impingement, bone and joint inflammation. Despite the clinical importance of these problems, in current publications the pathology of cervical disc degeneration has been studied merely from a morphologic view point using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), without ...