Does a small size needle puncture cause intervertebral disc changes?

Abstract

PURPOSE: Small size needles have been regularly used for intradiscal injection of innocuous/potential therapeutic compounds in experimental conditions, but also in clinic procedures, such as discography. Our aim was to investigate if a 30-gauge needle could trigger observable changes on intact intervertebral discs. We compared these effects to those induced by a large size needle (21-gauge), a well-known intervertebral disc degenerative model based on needle puncture. METHODS:Coccygeal intervertebral discs (Co8-9) of adult male Wistar rats were punctured with a 21-gauge needle, while the coccygeal levels Co7-8 and Co9-10 remained intact. The 30-gauge needle was used to inject a safe volume of saline (2 µl) on both intact (Co9-10) and punctured (Co8-9) discs. MRI and histological score were performed at 2, 15 and 42 days after procedure. RESULTS:MRI analyses revealed significant reduction on signal intensity of 21-gauge punctured discs. Intact discs which received a saline injection through a 30-gauge needle also revealed significant alterations in the MRI signal when compared with control discs. No histological changes were observed in the intact saline injected discs at any time analyzed.CONCLUSION: Since significant intervertebral image changes were observed with a 30-gauge needle, cautious interpretation of the pharmacological inoculation findings is required.

Immuohistochemical score of matrix metalloproteinase-1 may indicate the severity of symptomatic cervical and lumbar disc degeneration

“…Currently, the MMP-1 IHC score is not accessible with noninvasive techniques. Studies have shown that any injury to the intervertebral disc, including a small size needle puncture, could aggravate degenerative changes [54,55]. Thus, the development of noninvasive imaging technique to obtain MMP-1 IHC score would be helpful to predict the severity of IVD degeneration.…”

Time-Course Investigation of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Induced by Different Sizes of Needle Punctures in Rat Tail Disc

“…The injury caused by the needle puncture should be large enough to disrupt biomechanical function to drive degenerative changes in the rat tail disc AF. Various sizes of needles (18G–30G) have been chosen to induce IVDD, as reported before [ 13 – 21 , 28 , 31 ]. However, there is no standardized method in terms of the effect of the injury severity, which is important for the effect of biologic therapy in different stages of degeneration.…”

Quantitative MRI correlates with histological grade in a percutaneous needle injury mouse model of disc degeneration

“…While large animal model evaluation is a requisite preclinical step, initial in vivo mechanistic and screening studies necessitate the use of small animal models such as mice, where established techniques in genetic manipulation permit mechanistic studies of stem cell-mediated regeneration, and lower costs enable higher throughput experimentation. [9][10][11] Most small animal models of disc degeneration have utilized rabbits [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] or rats, [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] as the size scale of mice presents greater technical challenges. One of these challenges is the risk of inducing severe degeneration, in which there is complete loss of healthy nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue, biomechanical integrity, and normal disc height, which is not well-suited for studying the regenerative properties of cell-based therapies.…”