The intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) with increasing aging mainly manifests as low back pain (LBP) accompanied with a loss of physical ability. These pathological processes can be preliminarily interpreted as a series of changes at cellular level. In addition to cell death, disc cells enter into the stagnation with dysfunction and deteriorate tissue microenvironment in degenerative discs, which is recognized as cell senescence. During aging, many intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been proved to have strong connections with these cellular senescence phenomena. Growing evidences of these connections require us to gather up critical cues from potential risk factors to pathogenesis and relative interventions for retarding cell senescence and attenuating degenerative changes. In this paper, we try to clarify another important cell state apart from cell death in IDD and discuss senescence-associated changes in cells and extracellular microenvironment. Then, we emphasize the role of oxidative stress and epigenomic perturbations in linking risk factors to cell senescence in the onset of IDD. Further, we summarize the current interventions targeting senescent cells that may exert the benefits of antidegeneration in IDD.
Background: Facet joint osteoarthritis (FJO) is an important element of lumbosacral degenerative disease. However, its association with other possible risk factors is still controversial. This study was conducted to investigate the association of FJO with risk factors and with presence of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD).
Patient and method: Lumbosacral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations of 100 patients (36 male and 64 female) with low back pain (LBP) were reviewed in this cross-sectional retrospective study for the presence of FJO. The overall prevalence of FJO as well as the number of levels affected was correlated with the age, gender, body weight, height, BMI, female parity. FJO was also correlated with presence of corresponding IVDD.
Results: Overall prevalence of FJO was 23%. The prevalence of FJO was significantly associated with advancing age (p=0.018). Females were more affected than males but without statistical significance (p value = 0.79). Similarly, FJO were more frequent in women with advanced multiparity but the association was statistically not significant (p value 0.1) there was statistically significant association between BMI and number of levels affected by FJO (p value 0.037). IVDD was significantly associated with higher prevalence of FJO especially at L3/4 and L4/5 levels (p values P<0.0001 and 0.04 respectively).
Conclusion: Age was the single most important factor significantly associated with both overall higher prevalence of FJO and higher number of involved levels. BMI was statistically associated with increasing number of level affected. IVDD was significantly associated with presence of FJO at L3/4 & L4/5 levels.
Interplay between Genetic Risk Factors and Protective Mechanisms for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Mice