Expression Of TGF-α And EGFR And Its Significance In The Pulpy Nucleus Tissue Of Degenerated Lumbar Discs

[Objective]: To investigate the Expression and its significance of TGF-αand EGFR in human nucleus pulposus of the degenerated human intervertebral discs.[Methods]: The experimental group consisted of 48 samples of the fresh pulpy nucleus tissue(male-31 samples,female-17 samples), which were obtained from patients with lumbar disc herniation via surgical intervention. It was divided into vascular invasion group(32 samples) and non vascular invasion group(16samples).The average age of patients is 41.4 years old.10 out of 48 samples (male-7 samples, female-3 samples) of the fresh pulpy nucleus tissue harvested by operation from fracture of lumbar vertebrae acted as the control group, whose average age is 29.7 years old. The sampls fell into two groups. one group is made as parraffin section, using HE staining technique in section examination and IHC method to measure the protein expression of TGF-αand EGFR.The other group was using RT-PCR to measure the expression of TGF-α,EGFRmRNA and analyse the the relation between two of them.[Results]: 1.The results of RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining showed that there were stronger expressions of TGF-αand EGFR in experimental group than of ithem in control group(protein level: t=23.448,P<0.01;t=10.635,P<0.01.mRNA level:t=25.833,P<0.01;t=28.785,P<0.01). 2. There were 32 samples of vascular invasion out of 48, which is 66.7% of all. 3.In experiment, the results of RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining showed that there were stronger expressions of TGF-αand EGFR in vascular invasion group than non vasular invasion group. ( protein level:t=14.902,P<0.01;t=6.741,P<0.01.mRNA level:t=25.833,P<0.01;t=28.785,P<0.01). 4.There was certain positive correlation between the mRNA and protein expressions of TGF-αand that of EGFR in experimental group( protein level:r=0.795,P<0.01.mRNA level:r=0.624,P<0.01). [Conclusions]: 1.There is significant difference in the expression level of TGF-α,EGFR between normal and degenerated lumbar disc.2. The intimate relationship between vascular invasion and degenerated lumbar disc might be the cause of lumbar disc degenerating.3.TGF-α,EGFR might be involved in the form the new blood vessels and vascular invasion in degenerated lumbar disc, and have synergistic expression with it.