STUDY DESIGN This study analyzed the effects of autografted nucleus pulposus on nerve root axon morphology, neurophysiologic function, and sodium channel expression. OBJECTIVES To investigate the chronic effects of the epidural implantation of nucleus pulposus on nerve root morphology, neural activity, ectopic discharge, mechanosensitivity, and sodium channel expression. SUMMARY OF BACKGROU...

BACKGROUND The nucleus pulposus is extremely deformable and it is not uncommon to observe strain amplitudes as large as 12.5% in physiological loading conditions. It has been shown that the nucleus pulposus contributes to the damping properties of the intervertebral disc. The quantification of the damping properties of the nucleus pulposus under physiological large deformations is then a key as...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Disc degeneration is the leading cause of low back pain and is often characterized by a loss of disc height, resulting from cleavage of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) present in the nucleus pulposus. Intact CSPGs are critical to water retention and maintenance of the nucleus osmotic pressure. Decellularization of healthy nucleus pulposus tissue has the potential to...

INTRODUCTION Synovial mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have high proliferative and chondrogenic potentials, and MSCs transplanted into the articular cartilage defect produce abundant extracellular matrix. Because of similarities between the articular cartilage and the intervertebral disc cartilage, synovial MSCs are a potential cell source for disc regeneration. Here, we examined the effect of int...

Previous experimental studies have indicated that that an autoimmune reaction towards herniated nucleus pulposus may constitute a pathogenetic component in the pathophysiology of sciatica. If an autoimmune reaction would be present, one would expect that exposure of nucleus pulposus to the host would induce an up regulation of antigen-presenting cells, such as monocytes. Autologous nucleus pulp...

Patients with degenerative disc disease (DDD) experience serious clinical symptoms, including chronic low back pain. A series of therapies have been developed to treat DDD, including physical therapy and surgical treatment. However, the therapeutic effect of such treatments has remained insufficient. Recently, stem cell‑based therapy, in which stem cells are injected into the nucleus pulposus i...

BACKGROUND Degrading enzymes play an important role in the process of disc degeneration. The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between the expression of high temperature requirement serine protease A1 (HtrA1) in the nucleus pulposus and the T2 value of the nucleus pulposus region in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirty-six patients who had under...

Hyperleptinemia is implicated in obesity-associated lumbar disc degeneration. Nevertheless, the effect of leptin on the intracellular signaling of nucleus pulposus cells is not clear. The current study sought to delineate the possible involvement of the RhoA/ROCK pathway in leptin-mediated cytoskeleton reorganization in nucleus pulposus cells. Nucleus pulposus cells isolated from scoliosis pati...

This study investigated the inhibitory effect of gallic acid (GA) on the release of A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase with Thrombospondin motifs 4 (ADAMTS4) through the regulation of the NF-κB signaling pathway, which is closely related to the matrix metalloproteinases in nucleus pulposus cells. Different concentrations of GA were added to TNF-α-induced human nucleus pulposus cells (hNPCs) an...

Aberrant proliferation of nucleus pulposus cell is implicated in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc degeneration. Recent findings revealed that microRNAs, a class of small noncoding RNAs, could regulate cell proliferation in many pathological conditions. Here, we showed that miR-10b was dramatically upregulated in degenerative nucleus pulposus tissues when compared with nucleus pulposus ti...