Expression and Relationship of Proinflammatory Chemokine RANTES/CCL5 and Cytokine IL-1β in Painful Human Intervertebral Discs

Abstract

RANTES and IL-1β expression was significantly elevated in painful IVDs after careful selection of painless versus painful IVD tissue. RANTES expression was found to correlate significantly with expression of IL-1β. RANTES was upregulated by IL-1β/TNF-α/1% fetal bovine serum an in vitro treatment to induce a degenerative phenotype.