Open AccessJournal Article
Factors involved in the nutrition of the human lumbar intervertebral disc: cellularity and diffusion of glucose in vitro.
TLDR
Calculated findings and derived values for glucose utilization in disc tissue indicate that nutritional conditions in the intervertebral disc are more critical than, for example, in articular cartilage.Abstract:
Post-mortem specimens of the human lumbar (L4-L5) intervertebral disc have been studied histologically and physico-chemically. Blood vessels were found only at the margin of the anulus fibrosus and in the vertebral marrow spaces. Contact between disc tissue and marrow spaces occupied about 10% of the bone-cartilage interface. The disc was most cellular at the periphery of the anulus fibrosus and in the hyaline cartilage next to the vertebral bone. Cellularity declined towards the nucleus pulposus where it achieved a low constant value. The cell density of the disc as a whole was about 60000 cells/mm3. For glucose, the diffusion coefficient of the anulus fibrosus and hyaline cartilage end plate was 2.5 cm2/sec and 2.4 cm2/sec respectively at 37 degrees C, comparable to that of cartilage elsewhere. The permeability of the bone-cartilage interface was low, particularly in the peripheral part. Calculations, based on the present findings and derived values for glucose utilization in disc tissue, indicate that nutritional conditions in the intervertebral disc are more critical than, for example, in articular cartilage.read more
Citations
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Degeneration of the intervertebral disc
Jill P. G. Urban,Sally Roberts +1 more
TL;DR: The intervertebral disc is a cartilaginous structure that resembles articular cartilage in its biochemistry, but morphologically it is clearly different, and shows degenerative and ageing changes earlier than does any other connective tissue in the body.
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Nutrition of the intervertebral disc.
TL;DR: Loss of nutrient supply can lead to cell death, loss of matrix production, and increase in matrix degradation and hence to disc degeneration.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mechanical Initiation of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration
TL;DR: Comparisons with the results from tissue culture experiments indicated that the observed changes in matrix compressive stress would inhibit disc cell metabolism throughout the disc, and could lead to progressive deterioration of the matrix.
Journal ArticleDOI
Intervertebral disc: anatomy-physiology-pathophysiology-treatment.
TL;DR: The degenerative disc, having lost its height, effects the structures close by, such as ligamentum flavum, facet joints, and the shape of the neural foramina, the main cause of spinal stenosis and radicular pain due to the disc degeneration in the aged populations.
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2001 Volvo Award Winner in Basic Science Studies: Effect of nutrient supply on the viability of cells from the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc.
TL;DR: The results support the idea that maximum cell density in the disc is regulated by nutritional constraints, and that a fall in nutrient supply reduces the number of viable cells in theDisc and thus leads to degeneration.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
In vitro diffusion of dye through the end-plates and the annulus fibrosus of human lumbar inter-vertebral discs.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the Vitro Diffusion of DYE Through the End-Plates and the Annulus Fibrosus of Human Lumbar Inter-Vertebral Discs.
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The permeability of articular cartilage
TL;DR: It is shown that the permeability of cartilage is the same in necropsy specimens as in the living animal and it may be inferred from this fact that the nutrition of Cartilage is partly dependent on joint movement.
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Physicochemical Properties of Cartilage in the Light of Ion Exchange Theory
TL;DR: The concentration of fixed negatively-charged groups in cartilage was shown to be the most important parameter and fixed charge density was found to increase with distance from the articular surface and this variation was reflected in the other properties.
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Distribution and Diffusion of Solutes in Articular Cartilage
TL;DR: The molal distribution coefficients of small uncharged molecules like urea are close to unity, which indicates that all water in cartilage seems to behave as solvent water, and for larger molecules the distribution as well as the diffusion coefficients decrease with increase in molecular weight and are very sensitive to variations in fixed charge density.
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Studies on structural changes in the lumbar annulus fibrosus.
Carl Hirsch,Fritz Schajowicz +1 more
TL;DR: (1952).