L9-12, 9/F, Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Lab Block, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong, China.
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2014 Apr;53(4):600-10. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/ket303. Epub 2013 Sep 18.
Intervertebral disc degeneration usually starts from the inner nucleus pulposus (NP). The majority of previous NP-related studies assessed the outcome by the expression of chondrogenic markers since NP cells are chondrocyte like. However, NP cells are unique from chondrocytes and such assessments may be inappropriate. Very recently, several investigators published their findings about the transcriptional differences between NP cells and other related cell types on a genomic scale. In this review we discuss these recent findings and summarize the molecules that may be utilized as NP-specific markers to distinguish normal NP cells from several cell types and as markers that indicate its degeneration. We will revisit markers that distinguish NP cells from the outer surrounding annulus fibrosus (AF) cells and articular chondrocytes so as to facilitate authentic NP cell engineering from stem cells. Our review indicated that N-cadherin and keratin 19 have the potential to serve as common NP markers, as they distinguish healthy NP cells from AF cells, articular cartilage cells and degenerated NP cells.
椎间盘退变通常始于内部髓核（NP）。由于 NP 细胞类似于软骨细胞，因此大多数以前的 NP 相关研究都是通过软骨形成标志物的表达来评估结果。然而，NP 细胞与软骨细胞不同，这种评估可能不合适。最近，几位研究人员在基因组水平上发表了他们关于 NP 细胞与其他相关细胞类型之间转录差异的发现。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了这些最新发现，并总结了可能被用作 NP 特异性标志物的分子，以将正常 NP 细胞与几种细胞类型区分开来，并作为指示其退变的标志物。我们将重新审视区分 NP 细胞与周围纤维环（AF）细胞和关节软骨细胞的标志物，以便于从干细胞中进行真正的 NP 细胞工程。我们的综述表明，N-钙黏蛋白和角蛋白 19 有可能作为共同的 NP 标志物，因为它们可以将健康的 NP 细胞与 AF 细胞、关节软骨细胞和退变的 NP 细胞区分开来。
