Research Of New Animal Model Of Cervical Intervertebral Disc Degeneration And Its Application On Effects Of Massage And Traditional Chinese Medicine

Study design: A new cervical intervertebral disc degeneration animal model was establish through the application of keeping the rabbit cervical spine into 45-degree flexion for 5 hours once every day. Objective : To characterize the changes of cervical intervretebral disc histopathology, biochemistry and biomechanics associated with disc degeneration ,and to evaluate the effect of Chinese massage and traditional Chinese medicine on disc degeneration. Methods: 35 and 45 Japanese white rabbit were randomly divided into control, model, massage prevention(mp),massage treatment(mt),medicine prevention (jp) and medicine treatment (jt) groups. Rabbits in the latter five groups were kept at 45-degree flexion for 5 hours once every day. Respectively, rabbits in the mp and jp were given massage and jingfukangchongji treatment at the initial stage, rabbits in the mt and jt were treated two months later. After sacrificed,(l) €4.5 disc was chosen to observe the histopathological changes under light microscopy and transmission electronic microscopy; (2) Cs₆ disc was chosen to biochemical determine type II, I collagen and proteoglycan components content;(3) Ca-4 function spinal unit was chosen to do the regular biomechanical test. All the results were compared among the groups above. Results: (1) Rabbits in the control group showed no histopathology, biochemistry and biomechanical changes on cervical disc;(2) In the model group ,the pathological changes of the intervertebral disc include: spit of the annulus fibrosis, dehydration of nuclear puiposis,niderangement of the collagen of the annulus fibrosis, calcification > ossification and separation of the cartilage endplate; PG content in the nucleus puiposis and the cartilage endplate decreased significantly ,while type I collagen expression increased. Biomechanical test showed an significant decrease of resist-compression character of the intervertebral disc. The longer the flexion time ,the more significant the results were.(3)The pathological changes of the mp> mt -. jp and jt groups were similar to that of the model group, but the mp and jp group had a lesser degree. The mp and jp group had a higher content of PG than the model group. Type II collagen expression in the mp group was significantly stronger. There was no difference of PG content and collagen expression among the mU jt and model groups. The resist-compression character of the mp group was better than that of the model group. Conclusion:( 1)A new in vivo animal model was established by keeping the cervical spine into the abnormal stress condition.(2)Earlier manipulation and Jingfukangchongji could retard the degeneration of cervical intervertebral disc under long term abnormal stress condition.