Decompression Using Minimally Invasive Surgery for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Associated with Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: A Review.

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), which often occurs concurrently with degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS), is a common disease in the elderly population, affecting the quality of life of aged people significantly. Notwithstanding the frequently good effect of conservative therapy on LSS, a minority of the patients ultimately require surgery. Surgery for LSS aims to decompress the narrowed spinal canals with preservation of spinal stability.

Epidemiology of Lumbar Degenerative Phenotypes of Children and Adolescents: A Large-Scale Imaging Study.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Objective: Recently, there has been a rise in children and adolescents developing low back pain and/or sciatica. Degenerative lumbar spine MRI phenotypes can occur in this population but reports have been sporadic and the true incidence of such spine changes remains debatable.

Landscape of RNAs in human lumbar disc degeneration.

Accumulating evidence indicates noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) fine-tune gene expression with mysterious machinery. We conducted a combination of mRNA, miRNA, circRNA, LncRNA microarray analyses on 10 adults' lumbar discs. Moreover, we performed additional global exploration on RNA interacting machinery in terms of in silico computational pipeline.

Aberrantly expressed long noncoding RNAs in human intervertebral disc degeneration: a microarray related study.

Introduction: In addition to the well-known short noncoding RNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs), increasing evidence suggests that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) act as key regulators in a wide aspect of biologic processes. Dysregulated expression of lncRNAs has been demonstrated being implicated in a variety of human diseases. However, little is known regarding the role of lncRNAs with regards to intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD).

Lamotrigine reverses masseter overactivity caused by stress maybe via Glu suppression.

Experimental and non-experimental stress significantly increase masseter muscle tone, which has been linked to the symptoms and pathogenesis of several stomatognathic system diseases. Until now, the mechanism underlying this phenomenon has remained unclear. The current study was performed to determine the mechanism of the stress-induced increase in masseter muscle tone and to investigate the effect of lamotrigine on this change.

Downregulated interleukin 37 expression associated with aggravation of intervertebral disc degeneration.

Interleukin 37 (IL-37) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine which was proven to be associated with several diseases characterized with excessive-inflammation. The pathologic process of Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is also companied by uncurbed inflammation, many cytokines were reported presenting in the process. However, there is little IL-37 related knowledge in IVDD up to now.

Insights into the hallmarks of human nucleus pulposus cells with particular reference to cell viability, phagocytic potential and long process formation.

Objective: As a main cellular component within the disc, nucleus pulposus (NP) cells play important roles in disc physiology. However, little is known on the biologic hallmarks of human NP cells. Therefore, the present study aimed to address the features of human NP cells.

FasL on human nucleus pulposus cells prevents angiogenesis in the disc by inducing Fas-mediated apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells.

The intervertebral disc is the largest avascular organ in the human body. However, with the progress of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), the disc tends to be vascularized increasingly via angiogenesis. It is well established that both human nucleus pulposus (NP) cells and vascular endothelial cells express FasL and Fas.

CK8 phosphorylation induced by compressive loads underlies the downregulation of CK8 in human disc degeneration by activating protein kinase C.

Cytokeratin 8 (CK8) is a member of the cytokeratins family with multiple functions on the basis of its unique structural hallmark. The aberrant expression of CK8 and its phosphorylation are pertinent with various diseases. We have previously shown that CK8 exists in normal human nucleus pulposus (NP) cells and decreases as the intervertebral disc degenerates.

Expression of soluble Fas and soluble FasL in human nucleus pulposus cells.

The study aimed for addressing the expression of soluble Fas (sFas) and soluble Fas Ligand (sFasL) in human nucleus pulposus (NP) and its attendant relationship with disc degeneration. Human NP samples were collected from patients with disc degeneration and cadavers as degenerate and normal groups, respectively. Subsequently, NP cells were cultured in monolayer.

Impact of direct cell co-cultures on human adipose-derived stromal cells and nucleus pulposus cells.

Biologic and cellular treatment strategies aiming for curing intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) have been proposed recently. Given the convenient availability and expansion potential, adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs) might be an ideal cell candidate. However, the interaction between ADSCs and nucleus pulposus (NP) cells still remains ambiguous, especially in direct co-cultures of the two types of cells.

Molecular immunotherapy might shed a light on the treatment strategies for disc degeneration and herniation.

Despite surgical discectomy is one of the most effective treatments for intervertebral disc degeneration and lumbar disc herniation, a number of patients still complain of reserved low back pain, sciatica and numbness post-operatively with decreased life quality. Sciatica in patients with disc herniation is not only due to mechanical compression from herniated nucleus pulposus, but chemical and immunity agents. The intervertebral disc is composed of annulus fibrosus in the wedge and gelatinous nucleus pulposus in the centre with cartilage endplate sandwiched.

Down-regulated CK8 expression in human intervertebral disc degeneration.

As an intermediate filament protein, cytokeratin 8 (CK8) exerts multiple cellular functions. Moreover, it has been identified as a marker of notochord cells, which play essential roles in human nucleus pulposus (NP). However, the distribution of CK8 positive cells in human NP and their relationship with intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) have not been clarified until now.