A Murine Model for Human ECO Syndrome Reveals a Critical Role of Intestinal Cell Kinase in Skeletal Development.

An autosomal-recessive inactivating mutation R272Q in the human intestinal cell kinase (ICK) gene caused profound multiplex developmental defects in human endocrine-cerebro-osteodysplasia (ECO) syndrome. ECO patients exhibited a wide variety of skeletal abnormalities, yet the underlying mechanisms by which ICK regulates skeletal development remained largely unknown. The goal of this study was to understand the structural and mechanistic basis underlying skeletal anomalies caused by ICK dysfunction.

Curcumin alleviates lumbar radiculopathy by reducing neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and nociceptive factors.

Current non-surgical treatments for lumbar radiculopathy [e.g. epidural steroids and Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) antagonists] are neither effective nor safe.

A Novel Modality for Functional Imaging in Acute Intervertebral Disk Herniation via Tracking Leukocyte Infiltration.

Purpose: Inflammation plays a key role in the progression of intervertebral disk (IVD) herniation and associated low back pain. However, real-time spatial diagnosis of inflammation associated with acute disk herniation has not been investigated. We sought to detect local neutrophil and macrophage infiltration near disk herniation via the formyl peptide receptor 1 (FPR1)-mediated molecular imaging in a disk puncture mouse model to elucidate pathophysiological process of disk herniation.

A novel culture platform for fast proliferation of human annulus fibrosus cells.

Tissue engineering provides a promising approach to treat degenerative disc disease, which usually requires a large quantity of seed cells. A simple and reliable in vitro culture system to expand seed cells in a timely fashion is necessary to implement the application clinically. Here, we sought to establish a cost-effective culture system for expanding human annulus fibrosus cells using extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins as culture substrates.