Proteomic Signatures of Healthy Intervertebral Discs From Organ Donors: A Comparison With Previous Studies on Discs From Scoliosis, Animals, and Trauma

Abstract

The proteome of "healthy" human IVDs has been defined, and our results show that proteomic data on IVDs obtained from scoliosis, fracture patients, and cadavers lack normal physiological conditions and should not be used as biological controls despite normal MRI findings. This questions the validity of previous studies that have used such discs as controls for analyzing the pathomechanisms of disc degeneration.