Abstract
Background: Chronic low back pain, a leading contributor to disease burdenworldwide, is often caused by intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. Modic changes (MCs) are MRI signal intensity changes due to lesions in vertebral bone marrow adjacent to degenerated IVDs. Only a few studies described the histopathological changes associated with MC to date.MCtype 1 is suggested to be associated with bonemarrowinfiltration of fibrovascular tissue, type 2with fatty infiltration, and type 3with bone sclerosis in humans.
Methods: This study investigated whether the dog can be a valuable animal model to research MCs, by examining the prevalence, imaging, and histological characteristics of lumbar MCs in dogs (340 dogs, 2496 spinal segments).
Results: Logistic regression analysis indicated that the presence of lumbosacral MCs was associated with age and disc herniation (annulus fibrosis protrusion and/or nucleus pulposus extrusion). According to MRI analysis, MCs were mostly detected at the lumbosacral junction in dogs. Most signal intensity changes represented MC type 3, while previous spinal surgery seemed to predispose for the development of MC type 1 and 2. Histological analysis (16 dogs, 39 spinal segments) indicated that IVDs with MCs showed more histopathological abnormalities in the endplate and vertebral bone marrow than IVDs without MCs. Mostly chondroid proliferation in the bone marrow was encountered, while the histologic anomalies described in humans associated with MCs, such as fibrovascular or fatty infiltration, were scarcely detected.
Conclusions: Dogs spontaneously develop MCs, but may exhibit other pathological processes or more chronic bone marrow pathologies than humans with MCs. Therefore, more research is needed to determine the translatability of the MCs encountered in dog low-back-pain patients.
Methods: This study investigated whether the dog can be a valuable animal model to research MCs, by examining the prevalence, imaging, and histological characteristics of lumbar MCs in dogs (340 dogs, 2496 spinal segments).
Results: Logistic regression analysis indicated that the presence of lumbosacral MCs was associated with age and disc herniation (annulus fibrosis protrusion and/or nucleus pulposus extrusion). According to MRI analysis, MCs were mostly detected at the lumbosacral junction in dogs. Most signal intensity changes represented MC type 3, while previous spinal surgery seemed to predispose for the development of MC type 1 and 2. Histological analysis (16 dogs, 39 spinal segments) indicated that IVDs with MCs showed more histopathological abnormalities in the endplate and vertebral bone marrow than IVDs without MCs. Mostly chondroid proliferation in the bone marrow was encountered, while the histologic anomalies described in humans associated with MCs, such as fibrovascular or fatty infiltration, were scarcely detected.
Conclusions: Dogs spontaneously develop MCs, but may exhibit other pathological processes or more chronic bone marrow pathologies than humans with MCs. Therefore, more research is needed to determine the translatability of the MCs encountered in dog low-back-pain patients.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e1273 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | JOR Spine |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 21 Jul 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 825925 and the Dutch Arthritis Society (LLP22 and LLP12). We are grateful to Khaled Aboushaala, MD (Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush Medical College, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago) who retrieved representative MRI of Modic changes in the human spine for Figure 2 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. JOR Spine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Orthopaedic Research Society.
Keywords
- dog
- histology
- intervertebral disc
- lumbosacral
- Modic changes
- MRI