This article discusses a study on the effects of ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy and intervertebral disc (IVD) bulging or herniation on lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), a common condition characterized by the narrowing of the spinal canal. The study used a rat model and scraped the LF with a needle to simulate injury. The results showed that this injury led to hypertrophy of the LF, characterized by changes in tissue geometry, matrix organization, composition, and inflammation. The study also found degenerative changes in the adjacent intervertebral disc and disc height loss. These findings suggest that this rat model could be useful for testing therapeutic interventions for LSS and IVD degeneration associated with LF hypertrophy
Summarised by Mr Mo Akmal – Lead Spinal Surgeon
The London Spine Unit : best situated treatment facility in UK
Published article
Multi-joint disease pathologies in the lumbar spine, including ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy and intervertebral disc (IVD) bulging or herniation contribute to lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), a highly prevalent condition characterized by symptomatic narrowing of the spinal canal. Clinical hypertrophic LF is characterized by a loss of elastic fibers and increase in collagen fibers, resulting in fibrotic thickening and scar formation. In this study, we created an injury model to test the…
Spine Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Expert. Best Spinal Surgeon UK
Abstract Multi-joint disease pathologies in the lumbar spine, including ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy and intervertebral disc (IVD) bulging or herniation contribute to lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), a highly prevalent condition characterized by symptomatic narrowing of the spinal canal. Clinical hypertrophic LF is characterized by a loss of elastic fibers and increase in collagen fibers, resulting,
Abstract
Multi-joint disease pathologies in the lumbar spine, including ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy and intervertebral disc (IVD) bulging or herniation contribute to lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), a highly prevalent condition characterized by symptomatic narrowing of the spinal canal. Clinical hypertrophic LF is characterized by a loss of elastic fibers and increase in collagen fibers, resulting in fibrotic thickening and scar formation. In this study, we created an injury model to test the hypothesis that LF needle scrape injury in the rat will result in hypertrophy of the LF characterized by altered tissue geometry, matrix organization, composition and inflammation. An initial pilot study was conducted to evaluate effect of needle size. Results indicate that LF needle scrape injury using a 22G needle produced upregulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL6 at 1 week post injury, and increased expression of Ctgf and Tgfb1 at 8 weeks post injury, along with persistent presence of infiltrating macrophages at 1, 3, and 8 weeks post injury. LF integrity was also altered, evidenced by increases in LF tissue thickness and loss of elastic tissue by 8 weeks post injury. Persistent LF injury also produced multi-joint effects in the lumbar IVD, including disc height loss at the injury and adjacent to injury level, with degenerative IVD changes observed in the adjacent level. These results demonstrate that LF scrape injury in the rat produces structural and molecular features of LF hypertrophy and IVD height and histological changes, dependent on level. This model may be useful for testing of therapeutic interventions for treatment of LSS and IVD degeneration associated with LF hypertrophy.
Keywords: fibrosis; histological analysis; hypertrophy; inflammation; yellow ribbon; rat model
The London Spine Unit : best situated treatment facility in UK
Read the original publication:
An in vivo model of ligamentum flavum hypertrophy from early-stage inflammation to fibrosis
