Relationship between neovascularization and degenerative changes in herniated lumbar intervertebral discs.


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Publication Details

Output typeJournal article

Author listRätsep, Minajeva, Asser

PublisherSpringer

Publication year2013

Volume number22

Issue number11

Start page2474

End page80

Number of pages-2393

ISSN0940-6719

eISSN1432-0932

LanguagesEnglish-Great Britain (EN-GB)


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Open access statusgreen

Full text URLhttps://europepmc.org/articles/pmc3886507?pdf=render


Abstract

PURPOSE\nLumbar disc degeneration may be associated with intensity of neovascularization in disc herniations. Our study was designed to evaluate how much the severity of histodegeneration is related to the development of neovascularization and to the level of pleiotrophin in the herniated lumbar discs.\nMETHODS\nSurgically excised lumbar disc specimens were obtained from 29 patients with noncontained (i.e., extruding through the posterior longitudinal ligament) and 21 patients with contained disc herniations. The histodegeneration scores and levels of neovascularization were estimated according to semiquantitative analysis in lumbar disc and endplate samples. Immunohistochemical staining were performed to identify the newly formed blood vessels and to detect the presence of pleiotrophin in the specimens.\nRESULTS\nHigher levels of disc and endplate neovascularity were registered in noncontained herniations. The level of neovascularization was significantly related to the score of histodegeneration in the herniated disc tissues but not in the endplate specimens. Both contained and noncontained herniations had the highest values of histodegeneration in conjunction with the highest level of neovascularization but the relations between neovascularity and degenerative changes remained to be significant only in the group of noncontained herniations. Registration or frequency of pleiotrophin positive cells did not correlate significantly with histodegeneration or level of neovascularization in the disc samples.\nCONCLUSION\nSevere histodegeneration of the lumbar disc herniations is associated with enhanced neovascularization and potentially also spontaneous regression of the herniated tissue.


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Last updated on 2025-09-07 at 03:01