Journal of Orthopaedic Research - Spine®
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jorspine.bsky.social
Journal of Orthopaedic Research - Spine®
@jorspine.bsky.social
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JOR Spine is a fully open-access journal from @orssociety.bsky.social, dedicated to publishing high-quality spine research. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/25721143?journalRedirectCheck=true
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William Anderst and coauthors used biplane radiography to measure lumbar spine intervertebral kinematics in chronic low back pain patients. Learn more in JOR Spine: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Dynamic biplane radiography data collection and processing. (A) Participants performed F/E and LB motions while (B) synchronized biplane radiographs were collected. (C) CT scans were collected and bone tissue segmented to (D) create 3D bone models. (E) Intervertebral motion was measured using a validated volumetric model-based tracking process with submillimeter accuracy that matched digitally reconstructed radiographs created from subject-specific CT-based bones to biplane radiographs, and (F) six degrees of freedom vertebral kinematics were calculated.
December 8, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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Kaiyuan Zheng & coauthors present their review of the literature on the role of macrophage polarization in intervertebral disc degeneration: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Diagram of the mechanism by which macrophage polarization influences IVDD by modulating the inflammatory microenvironment
December 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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Manmeet S. Dhiman & coauthors found that human disc degeneration is accompanied by a loss of anterior annulus fibrosus interlamellar matrix integrity as assessed by peel tests: onlinelibrary.wiley....
(a) Schematic of the AF sample harvested (light shaded portion) from the individuals with degenerative disc disease and non-DD individuals. Sample dimension parameters labeled as: (1) Circumferential Length, (2) Disc Height/Tissue Width, (3) Radial Length, and (4) Peel Length. The blue and orange shaded faces of the sample showcase the change in orientation of the sample from (a) to (b). (b) Schematic showing the preparation of the peel test sample. The tissue strip on the left shows the Peel Length in red and the projected incision in white. The tissue is cut along the white line using a number 11 scalpel blade. The tissue strip on the right with the incision shows the annular tabs that are used to clamp the tissue for the peel test. Wp is the tissue width (disc height), Fp is the force experienced by the tissue for delamination, and Fc is the force exerted by the clamp to stretch and delaminate the tissue. Clamp force, Fc, is assumed to be equal to the peel force, Fp.
December 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM
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Ying Zhang & coauthors found that diurnal asymmetric loading modulates cell phenotype in intervertebral disc: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Representative Safranin O/Fast Green staining images of sagittal sections of IVDs. Bovine coccygeal IVD organ explant cultured with different loading regimes for 7 days and 6 μm sections from EDTA-decalcified and paraffin-embedded tissue. Scale bar: 2 mm.
December 5, 2025 at 3:13 PM
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David J. Lillyman & coauthors engineered an extracellular matrix hydrogel, and found that it restores disc volume and alleviates axial hypersensitivity in a rat model of disc-associated pain: onlinelibrary.wiley....
(A) The central proposal of this work was that a treatment for disc-associated pain could be fabricated from a mixture of decellularized healthy porcine NP tissue, collagen, and genipin. This therapeutic would theoretically be tissue integrating, spontaneously fibrillogenic, cytocompatible, and biomechanically restorative, leading to pain-like behavior remission. (B) The first arm of this work entailed testing decellularized nucleus pulposus gels supplemented with 6.0 mg/mL collagen and genipin from 0 to 20 mM. Testing of these gels (dNPs) included gelation kinetics, rheology, cytotoxicity, and ex vivo capacity to restore injured disc mechanics. (C) The outcomes of the first arm determined that the optimal formulation to test in vivo was 6.0 mg/mL dNP + 6.0 mg/mL collagen +2.5 mM genipin, referred to in this manuscript as dNP+. To test this therapeutic, disc degeneration was induced in female Sprague Dawley rats and allowed to progress for 8 weeks. At 9 weeks post-injury.
December 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
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Timothy D. Jacobsen & coauthors found that TNFα Receptor 1 and not Receptor 2 affect annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus response to cytokine challenge in a rat model. Learn more in JOR Spine: onlinelibrary.wiley....
TNFR1 is greater in AF than in NP and is affected by injury in NP. Sham (n = 4 AF, n = 4 NP) and injured (n = 6 AF, n = 6 NP) rat lumbar IVDs with TNFR1 (A, C) and TNFR2 (B, D) IHC with TolBlue counterstain. TNFR1 is greater in AF than in NP for Sham. TNFR1 is greater in Injury than Sham in NP. TNFR2 is lowly expressed and is not affected by IVD region or injury condition. (4-6 biological donors; *p < 0.05).
December 4, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Journal of Orthopaedic Research - Spine®
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Check out this @jorspine.bsky.social Editor’s Pick: Researchers tested potassium iodide (KI) as a new contrast agent to improve micro-CT imaging of the nucleus pulposus for earlier detection of IVD degeneration. Read more: bit.ly/3XyGQVk
High‐Resolution 3‐Dimensional Micro‐CT Imaging of Intervertebral Discs Using a Novel Contrast Agent
This study introduces the first use of a contrast agent (potassium iodide) to enhance 3D imaging of the nucleus pulposus within an intact intervertebral disc (IVD). This method was used to demonstrat...
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December 3, 2025 at 8:51 PM
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Karthikeyan Rajagopal & coauthors found that in vivo measurements reveal increased nucleus pulposus lactate and oxygen concentrations in a goat model of intervertebral disc degeneration: onlinelibrary.wiley....
(A) Representative Alcian blue and picrosirius red (ABPR) and (B) hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained mid-sagittal histological sections of healthy and degenerate goat discs; scale = 5 mm. Note the presence of endplate damage and associated eruption of disc tissue into adjacent vertebrae in the severely degenerate disc (arrow). (C–G) Semi-quantitative histological grading of NP cellularity, NP matrix, AF organization, AF/NP border, and CEP structure. (H) Overall histological grade. *p < 0.05 versus healthy; N = 3–6; median and interquartile range.
December 1, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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Sabina M. Pinto & coauthors present their findings on the relationship between lumbar multifidus morphometry and pain/disability in people with chronic nonspecific low back pain after considering demographics, fear-avoidance beliefs, insomnia, and spinal degenerative changes: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Case reporting and completeness of data collection.
December 1, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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This review by Kaiyuan Zheng & coauthors emphasizes that macrophage polarization is a pivotal regulator of intervertebral disc degeneration pathology, providing promising therapeutic targets: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Diagram of the mechanism by which macrophage polarization influences IVDD by modulating the inflammatory microenvironment.
December 1, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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Wei Wang & coauthors found that disk senescence and reduced height in aged mice are linked to upregulated expression of senescence-associated phenotypes and macrophage polarization markers, highlighting potential targets for therapeutic intervention: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Mouse IVD images showing tissue staining and DR showing the disk height statistics. (A) Saffron O, Fast Green, and Alcian Blue staining (scale bar: 200 μm, magnification ×10); (B, C) DR and caudal vertebrae of adult and aged mice and height statistics; (D) IVD altered histological scoring statistic (*p < 0.05, ****p < 0.0001). Each point on the statistical chart represents a mouse.
December 1, 2025 at 5:45 PM
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Maryam Kazemi Naeini & coauthors found evidence for a causal relationship between cytomegalovirus infection and chronic back pain. Learn more in this JOR Spine SHORT COMMUNICATION:
Evidence for a Causal Association Between Human Cytomegalovirus Infection and Chronic Back Pain: A One‐Sample Mendelian Randomization Study
Background Chronic back pain (CBP) is a major cause of disability globally. While its etiology is multifactorial, specific contributing genetic and environmental factors remain to be discovered. Par...
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December 1, 2025 at 3:45 PM
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Yongbo Zhang & coauthors found six genes (CCND1, FOXO1, FRMD8, NTRK2, PRRT1 and TFPI) linked to circadian rhythms associated with intervertebral disc degeneration progression, providing new insights for diagnosis and treatment: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Flow diagram presenting the main plan and process of the study.
December 1, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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Sikuan Zheng & coauthors examined the role of translation factors in intervertebral disc degeneration and evaluated their clinical relevance through unsupervised clustering methods: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Study flowchart: Overall study diagram.
December 1, 2025 at 1:24 PM
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In work by Hongfei Nie & coauthors, BID, TMTC1, and TNFAIP6 were identified as key genes linked to mitochondria and cell death in intervertebral disc degeneration, offering new insights for diagnosis and treatment: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Functional annotation and immune infiltration analyses. (A–C) GSEA of BID, TMTC1, and TNFAIP6 in the GSE70362 dataset. (D) Co-expression network of key genes constructed leveraging the GeneMANIA database. (E) Abundance of 28 types of immune cell infiltrates between IDD and control samples in the GSE70362 dataset, calculated applying the ssGSEA algorithm. (F) Box plot visualizing differences in immune cell infiltrates between IDD and control samples. (G) Correlation analysis of differential immune cells. (H) Heatmap showing the correlations between differential immune cells and key genes. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.
December 1, 2025 at 12:47 PM
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Shuangshuang Tu & coauthors found that phosphatidylcholine treatment alleviated nucleus pulposus cell palmitic acid-induced lipid droplet accumulation and senescence by modulating endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria contacts and mitochondrial oxidation capacity: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Increased lipotoxicity were detected in IDD
December 1, 2025 at 3:15 AM
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Yijun Dong & coauthors found that phosphatidylethanolamine protects nucleus pulposus cells from oxidative stress-induced cellular senescence and extracellular matrix degradation by promoting autophagy. Learn more in JOR Spine: onlinelibrary.wiley....
PE promotes autophagy in NP cells under stress conditions. (a, b) Representative images and quantification of LysoTracker Red in NP cells with the indicated treatments. Scale bar: 20 μm. ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. (c, d) Representative images of LC3 and p62 in NP cells with the indicated treatments. Scale bars: 10 and 20 μm. n = 5 independent biological replicates. ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. (e, f) MDC staining of the cells with the indicated treatments. Scale bars: 10 μm. n = 5 independent biological replicates.**p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. (g, h) The WB results and quantitative analysis of Beclin1, CTSD, LC3, P62 and GAPDH in cells with the indicated treatments. n = 3 independent biological replicates. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. (i) Representative TEM images of the samples with the indicated treatments. n = 5 independent biological replicates. Scale bar: 2 μm.
December 1, 2025 at 2:23 AM
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Brett T. Allaire & coauthors evaluated which physiological and anthropometric factors are associated with spine loading and should be accounted for in model creation: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Tasks simulated in OpenSim. From left to right: Axial lift, lateral lift, flexion lift with two hands, flexion lift with one hand, and opening a window. Weight lifted is set at 10% of body weight.
December 1, 2025 at 1:12 AM
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Chen Jiang & coauthors used network toxicology to investigate cellular senescence and associated molecular mechanisms in nicotine-induced intervertebral disc degeneration: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Flowchart of online toxicology of nicotine-induced disc degeneration.
December 1, 2025 at 12:23 AM
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Stone Sima & coauthors present DeVa (Decay Variance): A novel score based on variance in MRI T2* signal decay variance in the intervertebral disc can quantify painful and degenerate lumbar vertebral discs: onlinelibrary.wiley....
The Decay Variance (DeVa) workflow. (1) Patient with chronic low back pain is referred to a radiology centre for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). (2) The patient undergoes a T2*-weighted 2D FLASH multi-echo MRI with a minimum of 6 echo times. (3) The sequence generates 6 images with different signal intensities for each intervertebral disc (IVD). (4) The DeVa software merges the 6 images into 1 in the working portal for the practitioner to trace each IVD as a region of interest (ROI). (5) The DeVa software then post-processes the image. (6) A quantitative DeVa score for each disc as well as a qualitative signal intensity DeVa map is then generated in the form of a report.
November 30, 2025 at 11:35 PM
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Andrea Nüesch & coauthors developed a QuPath-based script and detailed guide for semi-automatic cell counting, specifically for tissues with low cellularity, such as intervertebral discs and cartilage. Learn more at: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Analysis workflow. After immunohistochemical staining, the slides are scanned and analyzed using QuPath before proceeding with statistical analysis and graph creation. Prior to running the QuPath batch analysis, the system undergoes training, during which the Cell Detection parameters are defined, an object classifier is trained, and regions of interest are selected (Figure 2). Batch analysis is then performed within a QuPath project based on the pre-defined parameters established during the initial training process. During this analysis, cells within the regions of interest are detected according to the pre-set parameters and classified as either “positive cell,” “negative cell,” or “no cell.” The batch process analyzes all slides within the project and generates a folder containing text files with the results. In the subsequent step, a Python script consolidates these text files into a single Excel spreadsheet, which provides the positivity rate for each region of every slide.
November 30, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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L. Baumgartner & coauthors tested a method for exploration of the relative dynamics of tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases and protease regulations under different mechanical, nutritional, and inflammatory environments in the nucleus pulposus: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Predicted mRNA profiles for cells not exposed and exposed to pro-inflammatory cytokines for five human habits: sitting, walking, hiking with 20 kg extra weight, jogging, and exposure to high vibration, and within three different nutrient (nut.) environments being optimal (pH 7.1, 5 mM glucose), critical (pH 6.95, 1.03 mM glucose), and early degenerated (pH 6.93, 0.89 mM glucose).
November 30, 2025 at 9:56 PM
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Understanding the molecular mechanisms of disc degeneration can help design new therapies. Khaled Aboushaala & coauthors evaluated the effects of conditional deletion of Sox9 in aggrecan-expressing cells on intervertebral disc degeneration and its underlying mechanisms: onlinelibrary.wiley....
β-catenin and CCL2 expression was increased in Sox9 deleted disc tissues. Immunohistochemistry data (L4/5, n = 3, scale bar 100 μm in A, 25 μm in B) demonstrated that β-catenin and CCL2 protein expression was markedly increased (yellow arrows and red arrows, right panel) in disc tissues from 4-month-old Sox9cKO mice when SOX9 protein expression was not detected by administration with tamoxifen (1 mg/10 g body weight, IP, daily for 5 days) at 8 weeks of age.
November 30, 2025 at 8:45 PM
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Spinal flexibility varies among spinal sections & motion segments. Hans-Joachim Wilke & coauthors provide a comprehensive overview of the range of motion and neutral zone values of all spinal levels from 30 years of in vitro experiments under standardized testing conditions: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Range of motion (RoM, dark bars) and neutral zone (NZ, bright bars) data in flexion/extension, combined left and right lateral bending, and combined left and right axial rotation for all spinal levels obtained under standardized in vitro testing conditions. Data are presented as median values with median absolute deviations (MAD). Median values of thoracic spinal range of motion acquired in presence of the rib cage are depicted with framed white circles, with the respective sample sizes given in brackets.
November 30, 2025 at 7:13 PM
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Learn about the significance of cellular senescence hub genes in the diagnosis and subtype classification of gene expression in intervertebral disc degeneration in this 2025 paper by Fei Liu & coauthors: onlinelibrary.wiley....
The expression levels of DUSP3, VEGFA, SP1, MAPKAPK5 proteins, and mRNAs in NPc were analyzed by Westernblot and RT-qPCR. (A) Preoperative MRI and postoperative x-ray images of Control and IVDD patients. (B) Protein expression of key genes (n = 3). (C) mRNA expression of key genes
November 30, 2025 at 6:53 PM