• Andreas Zigouris, George A Alexiou, Anna Batistatou, Spyridon Voulgaris, and Athanasios P Kyritsis.
• Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
• J Clin Neurosci. 2011 Oct 1;18(10):1424-5.

AbstractThe present study investigates the histological alterations and expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) in disc specimens of 43 patients who underwent surgery for lumbar disc herniation. The immunostaining for MMP-9 was evaluated semi-quantitatively. Histologic degeneration was scored between 0 and 12 depending on the degree of chondrocyte proliferation and presence of tears and clefts, granular changes and mucous degeneration. Herniation was graded as grade 1 (protrusion), grade 2 (extrusion) or grade 3 (sequestration) on MRI. Although there was no significant statistical difference between the histologic degeneration score and age, degenerative changes were more pronounced in higher grade of herniation (p<0.0001). MMP-9 expression was related to histologic degenerative score in all age groups (p=0.0065). MMP-9 was also related to herniation grade in patients younger than 30 years of age (p=0.0037). No significant association was found between MMP-9 expression and herniation grade in patients who were 30-60 years or over 60 years of age.Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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