• Zhe Chen, Yuehuan Zheng, Ye Yuan, Yucheng Jiao, Jiaqi Xiao, Zezhu Zhou, and Peng Cao.
• Department of Orthopedics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory for Prevention and Treatment of Bone and Joint Diseases with Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China.
• Biomed Res Int. 2016 Jan 1; 2016: 9612437.

PurposeTo investigate whether P. acnes could induce disc degeneration and Modic changes when inoculated into the discs of rabbits.MethodA wild-type strain of P. acnes isolated from a patient associated with Modic change and disc degeneration was inoculated into the intervertebral discs of rabbits. Meanwhile, S. aureus was injected into the discs to establish a model of discitis as the comparison and a standard strain of P. acnes was inoculated as the control. MRI and histological change were observed.ResultsBoth the P. acnes-inoculated and S. aureus-inoculated rabbits showed hyperintense signals at endplates and hypointense signals at nucleus pulposus on T2WI. However, P. acnes only resulted in moderate disc degeneration and endplates rupture in histological examination, which was different from the pathological change of discitis caused by S. aureus. In addition, higher death rates (2/3 versus 0/5) were observed in S. aureus-inoculated rabbits.ConclusionCompared to S. aureus, the pathological change caused by P. acnes would be considered as Modic-I change and disc degeneration rather than a discitis.

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