Infrared attenuated total reflection spectroscopic surface analysis of bovine‐tail intervertebral discs after UV‐light‐activated riboflavin‐induced collagen cross‐linking

Abstract

The tensile strength of the intervertebral disc (IVD) is mainly maintained by collagen crosslinks. Loss of collagen crosslinking combined with other agerelated degenerative processes contributes to tissue weakening, biomechanical failure, disc herniation and pain. Exogenous collagen cross-linking has been identified as an effective therapeutic approach for restoring IVD tensile strength. The current state-of-the-art method to assess the extent of collagen cross-linking in tissues requires destructive procedures and high-performance liquid chromatography. In this study, we investigated the utility of infrared attenuated total reflection (IR-ATR) spectroscopy as a nondestructive analytical strategy to rapidly evaluate the extent of UV-light-activated riboflavin (B2)induced collagen cross-linking in bovine IVD samples. Thirty-five fresh bovine-tail IVD samples were equally divided into five treatment groups: (a) untreated, (b) cell culture medium Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium only, (c) B2 only, (d) UV-light only and (e) UV-light-B2. A total of 674 measurements have been acquired, and were analyzed via partial least squares discriminant analysis. This classification scheme unambiguously identified individual classes with a sensitivity >91% and specificity >92%. The obtained results demonstrate that IR-ATR spectroscopy reliably differentiates between different

Can UVA-light-activated riboflavin-induced collagen crosslinking be transferred from ophthalmology to spine surgery? A feasibility study on bovine intervertebral disc

“…In contrary UVA-CXL has the advantage of an immediate and spatially targeted crosslinking effect, thus opening the way for intraoperative applications especially on IVDs already undergone irreversible tissue damage. Additionally, we have recently introduced novel nondestructive real-time assessment tools that can quantify and verify the UVA-CXL effect on IVD tissues further supporting our efforts to translate this effective ophthalmological intervention in spinal surgery [ 26 ].…”