Establishment of a New Model of Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Degeneration With Pathological Characteristics

Study Design: A prospective study. Objectives: Intervertebral disc degenerative disease is a common and frequently-occurring disease in adults and is the main cause of lower back pain. However, there is a lack of universal animal models to study disc degeneration. Methods: Forty-two male New Zealand white rabbits aged 12 months were used in this study. We established an endplate ischemic disc degeneration model though surgical ligation of rabbit lumbar vertebral body segment arteries. Two weeks after surgery, 6 experimental animals were randomly selected for follow-up tests. First, ischemia and lumbar disc degeneration were confirmed using imaging techniques. Then, immunohistochemical staining was performed to observe the growth of the annulus fibrosus. Finally, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and western blotting were used to detect mRNA expression and protein content of IL-1α, TNFα, collagen II, MMP-3, aggrecan, and PLA2 in the nucleus pulposus of the disc. Results: Imaging examination confirmed the successful construction of a lumbar disc degeneration model. Histological analysis and biochemical analysis showed a damaged intervertebral disc structure, and collagen II and aggrecan, the key extracellular matrix components of intervertebral discs, were reduced in synthesis and content. The synthesis and expression of IL-1α, TNFα, PLA2, and MMP-3 related to disc catabolism and inflammatory response were enhanced. Conclusions: We successfully constructed a lumbar disc degeneration ischemia model, which provides a novel approach to study the pathological mechanisms involved in discogenic low back pain and to prevent and treat discogenic low back pain.