Spontaneous Age-related Cervical Disc Degeneration in the Sand Rat

Abstract

Background Disc space narrowing, osteophytes, and disc degeneration are common and increase with aging. Few animal models are appropriate for the study of spontaneous age-related cervical disc degeneration. Questions/purposes We used the sand rat, a member of the gerbil family with well-recognized age-related lumbar disc degeneration, to determine whether spontaneous cervical disc degeneration differed from lumbar degeneration when evaluated by (1) radiologic and (2) histologic measures. Animals 2 to 25 months of age were used in these analyses. Methods Cervical and lumbar discs of 99 sand rats were analyzed with radiology, and cervical discs of 67 sand rats were studied with histology. Lateral digital radiographs of cervical and lumbar spines were scored for presence or absence of wedging, disc space narrowing, osteophytes, end plate calcification, and irregular disc margins at C2-C3 through C6-C7 and T12-L1 through L7-S1. Percentages for presence were calculated and statistically analyzed for younger (range, 2-11.9 months old) versus older (range, 12.0-25 months old) animals. Results Cervical discs in younger animals exhibited a greater proportion of irregular margins compared with lumbar sites (94% versus 83%; p = 0.02; 95% CI for difference, 2.7, 19.0%). In older animals, cervical discs showed a greater proportion of osteophytes than did lumbar discs (7% versus 0%; p \ 0.0001). The incidence of disc space narrowing was greater in cervical versus lumbar sites (99% versus 90%; p = 0.0008). Cervical spine sites which contained osteophytes morphologically showed irregular disc margins and revealed an extrusion of herniated disc material in the osteophytes. Conclusions Radiologic and morphologic studies confirmed age-related disc degeneration in the cervical spine of the sand rat. Clinical Relevance Clinical cervical aging studies have shown that 14% of asymptomatic subjects younger than 40 years have abnormal MRI scans with an increase to 50% by 50 years old. We studied an economic rodent model for cervical age-related spontaneous disc.

The Use of T1 Sagittal Angle in Predicting Cervical Disc Degeneration

“…Cervical disc space narrowing, osteophytes, and disc degeneration are common and increase with aging [ 9 ]. The prevalence of abnormal magnetic resonance images of the cervical spine is related to age in asymptomatic individuals.…”

“…Park et al [ 4 ] reported that T1 sagittal slope angle decreased in the older group, as compared with the younger counter part. Many studies have evaluated the factor of cervical disc degeneration [ 1 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ]. However, there are no studies on the relationship between T1 slope and cervical spondylosis.…”

Autophagy: A double-edged sword in intervertebral disk degeneration

“…Aging is thought to be a cause leading to disc degeneration [81,82]. Autophagy has also been shown to change with aging [83,84].…”

Leaping the hurdles in developing regenerative treatments for the intervertebral disc from preclinical to clinical

“…94 Besides size, the second difference between animal models is that in most animals, degeneration needs to be induced, since this is not a spontaneously occurring phenomenon. Exceptions are the sand rat 95,96 and the dog, 70 in which IVD degeneration occurs spontaneously with aging and is, at least in the dog, a clinical entity. 97 In small animals, IVD degeneration can be induced by genetic modification, 74,76,98 partial NP removal, 99 IVD puncture, 100-102 compression 103,104 (eg, tail-looping 105 ) and even whole body vibration.…”