The correlation between microvessel pathological changes of the endplate and degeneration of the intervertebral disc in diabetic rats

Abstract

In this study, the pathological microvessel changes to the endplate and the degeneration of the intervertebral disc of diabetic rats were examined in order to identify the possible mechanism by which diabetes mellitus (DM) induces degeneration of the intervertebral disc. A total of 30 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into two groups. DM was induced in one of the groups by streptozotocin (STZ) administration. The rats were sacrificed 4, 8 and 12 weeks later. Five rats from each group were sacrificed at each time interval and lumbar disc and endplate tissue were obtained from each rat. The histological changes, collagen expression, microvessel density (MVD) and apoptosis of the disc were investigated by different methods. The expression of collagen I in the diabetic DM group was higher compared to the control group at the three time points (P<0.01), in contrast to the expression of collagen II. The factor VIII-related antigen (FVIII RAg) was expressed in the control and DM groups, while its expression was relatively low in the DM group. The MVD of the DM group was smaller compared to that of the control group at the three time points (P<0.01). The apoptotic index (AI) in the diabetic group was significantly higher compared to that of the control group at the three time points (P<0.01). A negative correlation was observed between the MVD of the endplates and the notochordal cell AI in the two groups. Compared to the control group, the endplate MVD decreased and the cavity became smaller or disappeared in the diabetic rats. In conclusion, there was a negative correlation between MVD and degenerative changes of the intervertebral disc in diabetic rats.

The Relationship between Diabetes Mellitus Type II and Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Diabetic Rodent Models: A Systematic and Comprehensive Review

“…We identified 9511 published studies related to the issue IVDD. Out of these 27 manuscripts were related to the topic IVDD in diabetic rodent models, which is our research field of interest [ 3 , 15 , 43 , 47 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 ], see Table 4 and Table 5 . By further evaluation another four publications were excluded; two of them discussed the diabetic animal models used in IVDD, including rodents, but they were not related to IVDD.…”

The potential effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on lumbar disc degeneration: a retrospective single-center study

“…Several studies assumed that hyperglycemia enhances the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the NP which leads to the progression of disc degeneration [ 4 , 18 , 19 ]. Chen et al [ 20 ] found that DM accelerated the degeneration process of the disc by microangiopathy. Autophagy of the nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosis cells also appears to play an important role in LDD [ 21 ].…”

Weakness of unilateral lower limb’s proximal muscle; diabetic amyotrophy coexisting with lumbar discopathy: Case report and review of the literature

“…Genetik yatkınlık, aile hikayesi, yaş sigara kullanımı gibi risk faktörleri-nin yanında diabetin de mikroanjiopati yaparak LDH'ya yol açabileceği belirtilmiştir [22,24]. Chen ve arkadaşlarının [25] yaptığı çalışmada kan şeke-ri yüksekliği ve düşük oksijenlenmenin sonucunda oluşan glikolizasyon son ürünlerinin mikrodamar sayısında azalma veya tıkanmaya yol açabileceği bunun sonucunda da disk endplatelerinin mikrovasküler endotelyal hücre yaralanmasına neden olabileceği bildirilmiştir. Mekanik özellikleri bozulan diskte travmalara açık hale gelir.…”