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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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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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
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Is there a correlation between cervical vertebral bone quality and intervertebral disc degeneration? Ziye Qiu & coauthors used #MRI to investigate this question. Read more at: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Median sagittal position of T1-weighted MRI before surgery. The SI of vertebral trabecular bone and C2-level CSF were measured respectively. Left: T1-weighted MRI of cervical spine; Right: Enlarge the dotted frame on the left by 2 times; CSF indicated cerebrospinal fluid; SI, signal intensity; VB, vertebra bone; SI measurement result of the corresponding part.
November 30, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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Single-cell analysis integrated with machine learning elucidates the mechanisms of nucleus pulposus cells apoptosis in intervertebral disc degeneration and therapeutic interventions. Read more by Chao Song & coauthors: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Intersecting genes screening: (A). Intersecting Veen plot of Genecard data of IVDD with differential genes, (B). PPI network plot of intersecting genes, (C). Network plot of pivotal genes, and (D). Co-expression analysis of pivotal genes.
July 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
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Daqian Zhou & coauthors performed an analysis of key sifferential metabolites in intervertebral disc degeneration based on untargeted metabolomics. Learn more in JOR Spine: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Differential metabolite analysis in different ways. (A) The matchstick plot of differential metabolites. (B)The radargram analysis of differential metabolites. (C) Correlation analysis of differential metabolites. (D) Chordal analysis of differential metabolites.
July 2, 2025 at 8:07 PM
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There is currently no consensus on the classification of lumbar facet joints based on X-ray imaging. Xiaowen Liu &coauthors developed and evaluated the reliability of a grading system: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Example diagram based on the X-ray grading system.
July 1, 2025 at 3:15 PM
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What is the significance of the MAPK signaling pathway in the diagnosis and subtype classification of intervertebral disc degeneration? Yong Liu & coauthors investigated this question: onlinelibrary.wiley....
The bioinformatics analysis workflow of this study is shown in Figure 1. We obtained 20 differentially expressed MAPK-related genes, of which RASGRP4, DUSP3, HSPA1A, HSPA6, IL1R1, KRAS, MAP3K5, RPS6KA1, BRAF, TNF, CACNA1I, and RPS6KA5 were overexpressed in IDD samples, whereas RASGRP1, DUSP14, DUSP2, RRAS2, JUN, PRKACB, RAP1A, and RAP1B were downregulated (Figure 2A,B). We researched the functions and molecular pathways of 20 differentially expressed MAPK-related genes in IDD. Biological process (BP) terms are related to Ras protein signal transduction, positive regulation of MAPK cascades, and regulation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascades; cellular component (CC) terms are related to ficolin-1-rich granule lumen, focal adhesion, and external side of plasma membrane; and molecular function (MF) terms are related to MAP kinase phosphatase activity, GDP binding, and G protein activity (Figure 2C Supplementary Table S2). KEGG terms are enriched mainly in MAPK signaling pathway, neurotrophin signal
June 30, 2025 at 1:11 PM
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This recent review by Matthew A. R. Trone & coauthors highlights hyperacidity's effects on the intervertebral disc, such as catabolism of disk cells, neoinnervation, altered mechanical signaling, and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and ion channels. Learn more: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Healthy versus degenerative intervertebral disk (IVD) and nerve ending. (A) Schematic showing a side-by-side comparison of a healthy versus degenerative IVD. (B) Schematic showing a side-by-side of a nerve ending innervating a healthy IVD versus a degenerative IVD, including mechanisms of low pH nociception. (C) Concentrations across the healthy IVD. Schematic showing pH and concentrations of oxygen and glucose across the disk from endplate to endplate in a healthy IVD. AF, annulus fibrosus; EPs, endplates; NP, nucleus pulposus.
June 8, 2025 at 11:06 PM
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Failure of spine implants is particularly serious due to the implant location near the spinal cord and nerves. Annette Kienle & coauthors suggest an improved approach to mechanical testing of new devices: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Step 1 of the literature-based approach to proof the mechanical safety of a spinal implant: Summary of the in vivo loading of the relevant spinal region and the implant under consideration of the intended use of the implant and human factors.
June 6, 2025 at 4:23 PM
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Posterior lumbar interbody fusion is used to treat various spine disorders, but can sometimes result in biomechanical deterioration in adjacent spine segments. Lipeng He & Tingchen Zhu and coauthors used finite element modeling to better understand this problem: onlinelibrary.wiley....
Nephograms of the stress distribution in the annulus under flexion loading conditions: Comparable stress values can be recorded in both Models 1 and Model 2, and a lower stress value can be observed in Model 3 and Model 4. Therefore, biomechanical significance of articular processes excision and preservation was limited. In contrast, obvious difference in stress values on the cranial motion segment can be observed between models with PLC excision and preservation.
June 4, 2025 at 8:02 PM