Abstract
Hydrogel injection has been recently proposed as a novel therapy for disc degenerative diseases, with the potential to restore the spine motion and the intervertebral disc height. However, it remains unknown whether the new technique could also maintain the shock absorbing property of the treated intervertebral disc. In this study, 18 porcine lumbar bone-disc-bone specimens were collected and randomly divided into three groups: the normal with intact intervertebral discs, the mimic for the injection of disulfide cross-linked hyaluronan hydrogels following discectomy, and the control disc with discectomy only. In the static compression test, specimens in the mimic group exhibited displacements similar to those in the normal discs, whereas the control group showed a significantly larger displacement range in the first two steps (P < 0.05). With the frequency increasing, all specimens generally displayed an increasing storage modulus, decreasing loss modulus, and tanδ. At any frequency point, the control group exhibited the largest value in all the three parameters among three groups while the normal group was the lowest, with the mimic group being mostly close to the normal group. Therefore, the hydrogel injection into the intervertebral discs greatly restored their shock absorbing function, suggesting that the technique could serve as an effective approach to maintaining biomechanical properties of the degenerative intervertebral disc.
Highlights
Intervertebral discs, located between two vertebral bodies, are mainly composed of endplate, nucleus pulposus, and annulus fibrosus, which play a central role in permitting motion, allowing spinal flexibility, and dissipating energy during activities of daily living [1]
In an attempt to understand the function reconstruction of degenerative disc by hydrogel injection, we investigated the static and dynamic biomechanical characteristics of lumbar intervertebral disc with or without hydrogel injection after nucleus discectomy
Step 3 Control (b) in the control group exhibited significantly more displacement compared with the other two groups (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference between the normal group and the mimic group (P > 0.05)
Summary
Intervertebral discs, located between two vertebral bodies, are mainly composed of endplate, nucleus pulposus, and annulus fibrosus, which play a central role in permitting motion, allowing spinal flexibility, and dissipating energy during activities of daily living [1]. The nucleus pulposus and the annulus fibrosus are integrated together to maintain the normal biomechanical functions of the disc. Disc degeneration is a common process that can result in degenerative disc diseases with low back pain and affect millions of people [2, 6, 7]. Nucleus discectomy is a common surgery for patients having herniated nucleus pulposus [4]. Through this surgery, most patients have their pain relieved [9]. Increasing investigations have pointed out that nucleus discectomy greatly affects spinal structure and biomechanical functions, probably leading to BioMed Research International further degeneration of the adjacent discs and facet joint [9, 10]
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