Antoniou John, Mwale Fackson, Demers Caroline N, Beaudoin Gilles, Goswami Tapas, Aebi Max, Alini Mauro
Lady Davis Institute and Department of Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2006 Jun 15;31(14):1547-54. doi: 10.1097/01.brs.0000221995.77177.9d.
The structural integrity of the nucleus pulposus (NP) of intervertebral discs was targeted by enzyme-specific degradations to correlate their effects to the magnetic resonance (MR) signal.
To develop quantitative MR imaging as an accurate and noninvasive diagnostic tool to better understand and treat disc degeneration.
Quantitative MR analysis has been previously shown to reflect not only the disc matrix composition, but also the structural integrity of the disc matrix. Further work is required to identify the contribution of the structural integrity versus the matrix composition to the MR signal.
The bovine coccygeal NPs were injected with either enzyme or buffer, incubated at 37 degrees C as static, unloaded and closed 3-disc segments, and analyzed by a 1.5-Tesla MR scanner to measure MR parameters.
Collagenase degradation of the NP significantly decreased the relaxation times, slightly decreased the magnetization transfer ratio, and slightly increased the apparent diffusion coefficient. Targeting the proteoglycan and/or hyaluronan integrity by trypsin and hyaluronidase did not significantly affect the MR parameters, except for an increase in the apparent diffusion coefficient of the disc after trypsin treatment.
Our results demonstrate that changes in the structural integrity of matrix proteins can be assessed by quantitative MR.
通过酶特异性降解来靶向椎间盘髓核（NP）的结构完整性，以将其影响与磁共振（MR）信号相关联。
开发定量MR成像作为一种准确且无创的诊断工具，以更好地理解和治疗椎间盘退变。
先前已表明定量MR分析不仅能反映椎间盘基质组成，还能反映椎间盘基质的结构完整性。需要进一步开展工作来确定结构完整性与基质组成对MR信号的贡献。
向牛尾椎NP注射酶或缓冲液，在37℃下作为静态、无负荷且封闭的3个椎间盘节段进行孵育，并通过1.5特斯拉MR扫描仪进行分析以测量MR参数。
NP的胶原酶降解显著降低了弛豫时间，轻微降低了磁化传递率，并轻微增加了表观扩散系数。用胰蛋白酶和透明质酸酶靶向蛋白聚糖和/或透明质酸完整性，除了胰蛋白酶处理后椎间盘的表观扩散系数增加外，对MR参数没有显著影响。
我们的结果表明，基质蛋白结构完整性的变化可通过定量MR进行评估。
