Contribution of the endplates to disc degeneration.

Purpose Of Review: The endplates form the interface between the rigid vertebral bodies and compliant intervertebral discs. Proper endplate function involves a balance between conflicting biomechanical and nutritional demands. This review summarizes recent data that highlight the importance of proper endplate function and the relationships between endplate dysfunction, adjacent disc degeneration, and axial low back pain.

Tidemark Avulsions are a Predominant Form of Endplate Irregularity.

Study Design: Descriptive histologic and magnetic resonance imaging study of human cadaveric spines.

Objective: To identify and characterize common endplate pathologies to form a histologic foundation for an etiology-based classification system.

Summary Of Background Data: Irregularities at the spinal disc-vertebra interface are associated with back pain and intervertebral disc herniation injuries.

Cartilage Endplate Thickness Variation Measured by Ultrashort Echo-Time MRI Is Associated With Adjacent Disc Degeneration.

Study Design: A magnetic resonance imaging study of human cadaver spines.

Objective: To investigate associations between cartilage endplate (CEP) thickness and disc degeneration.

Summary Of Background Data: Damage to the CEP is associated with spinal injury and back pain.

Structure-function relationships at the human spinal disc-vertebra interface.

Damage at the intervertebral disc-vertebra interface associates with back pain and disc herniation. However, the structural and biomechanical properties of the disc-vertebra interface remain underexplored. We sought to measure mechanical properties and failure mechanisms, quantify architectural features, and assess structure-function relationships at this vulnerable location.

Spaceflight-induced bone loss alters failure mode and reduces bending strength in murine spinal segments.

Intervertebral disc herniation rates are quadrupled in astronauts following spaceflight. While bending motions are main contributors to herniation, the effects of microgravity on the bending properties of spinal discs are unknown. Consequently, the goal of this study was to quantify the bending properties of tail discs from mice with or without microgravity exposure.

Alterations in intervertebral disc composition, matrix homeostasis and biomechanical behavior in the UCD-T2DM rat model of type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) adversely affects many tissues, and the greater incidence of discogenic low back pain among diabetic patients suggests that the intervertebral disc is affected too. Using a rat model of polygenic obese T2D, we demonstrate that diabetes compromises several aspects of disc composition, matrix homeostasis, and biomechanical behavior. Coccygeal motion segments were harvested from 6-month-old lean Sprague-Dawley rats, obese Sprague-Dawley rats, and diabetic obese UCD-T2DM rats (diabetic for 69 ± 7 days).

Influence of biochemical composition on endplate cartilage tensile properties in the human lumbar spine.

Endplate cartilage integrity is critical to spine health and is presumably impaired by deterioration in biochemical composition. Yet, quantitative relationships between endplate biochemical composition and biomechanical properties are unavailable. Using endplate cartilage harvested from human lumbar spines (six donors, ages 51-67 years) we showed that endplate biochemical composition has a significant influence on its equilibrium tensile properties and that the presence of endplate damage associates with a diminished composition-function relationship.

Innervation of pathologies in the lumbar vertebral end plate and intervertebral disc.

Background Context: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has limited diagnostic value for chronic low back pain because of the unclear relationship between any anatomic abnormalities on MRI and pain reported by the patient. Assessing the innervation of end plate and disc pathologies-and determining the relationship between these pathologies and any abnormalities seen on MRI-could clarify the sources of back pain and help identify abnormalities with enhanced diagnostic value.

Purpose: To quantify innervation in the vertebral end plate and intervertebral disc and to relate variation in innervation to the presence of pathologic features observed by histology and conventional MRI.

Structured coculture of stem cells and disc cells prevent disc degeneration in a rat model.

Background Context: Harnessing the potential of stem cells is an important strategy for regenerative medicine. This study explores the use of bilaminar coculture pellets (BCPs) of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) as a cell-based therapy for intervertebral disc regeneration. Prior in vitro experiments have shown that BCP can help differentiate MSCs and substantially improve new matrix deposition.

ISSLS prize winner: repeated disc injury causes persistent inflammation.

Study Design: An in vivo rat model of disc degeneration with emphasis on characterizing acute and chronic cytokine production.

Objective: To compare the morphologic and proinflammatory response between a single and triple-stab injury in attempts to establish mechanisms of chronic disc inflammation.

Summary Of Background Data: The features that distinguish physiologic (asymptomatic) from pathologic (symptomatic) degeneration are unclear.