Autologous fibroblasts induce fibrosis of the nucleus pulposus to maintain the stability o

Autologous fibroblasts induce fibrosis of the nucleus pulposus to maintain the stability of

degenerative intervertebral discs

Chen Chen; Tangjun Zhou; Xiaojiang Sun; Chen Han; Kai Zhang; Changqing Zhao; Xunlin Li; Haijun Tian; Xiao Yang; Yifan Zhou; Zhiqian Chen; An Qin; Jie Zhao

【期刊名称】《骨研究：英文》 【年(卷),期】2020(008)001

【摘要】Lumbar degenerative disc diseases cause low back pain(LBP). The maintenance of the height and stability of the intervertebral disc(IVD) space is an effective treatment for LBP. The following study evaluated the effects of fibroblast injection on intervertebral disc degeneration(IDD) in a preclinical setting. Compared with the IDD group, the fibroblast treatment group demonstrated effective maintenance of IVD height, reduced endplate degeneration, and improved nuclear magnetic resonance signals and overall histological structure. In doing so, fibrotic IVDs maintained the stability and biomechanics of the vertebra. This finding is in agreement with clinical findings that human nucleus pulposus(NP) fibrosis is essential for the maintenance of IVD height and mechanical properties in patients following

percutaneous

endoscopic

lumbar

discectomy(PELD).

Mechanistically, we demonstrated that injected fibroblasts not only proliferated but also induced NP cells to adopt a fibrotic phenotype via