MicroRNA-199a Upregulation Mediates Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Degeneration and is Associated with Clinical Grades of Degeneration

Özet

AIM: To determine the expression profile of miRNA-199a-5p in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and its correlation to the gradeof IDD.MATERIAL and METHODS: This case-controlled study was conducted during a 6-month period from 2017 to 2018 in two universityhospitals in Shiraz, Iran. We included 15 patients with grade 3 and 4 of Pfirrmann and 5 patients with traumatic lumbosacralfractures with grade I. Total discectomy was performed in all the individuals and the samples were sent to the laboratory. Thenucleus pulposus (NP) cells were isolated and the RNA was extracted. cDNA was synthesized by reverse transcriptase and theexpression was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCT).RESULTS: We overall included 20 patients in two study groups. Both study groups were comparable regarding the baseline andclinical characteristics except for age (p=0.026). The fold change (p=0.007), and relative expression (p=0.012) of the miRNA-199a5p was found to be significantly higher in patients compared to controls. The fold change (p=0.001), and relative expression(p<0.001) were also associated with the Pfirrmann grading. We found that the area under curve (AUC) was 0.880 (95%CI: 0.721-0.938) indicative of moderate accuracy.CONCLUSION: Expression of the miRNA-199a-5p is increased in the IDD. The expression of the miRNA-199a-5p was alsoassociated with the grade of the degeneration based on the Pfirrmann grading.