Anti-senescence of PDGF in human intervertebral disc

In the current study, we hypothesize that PDGF-AB and -BB mitigated IVD degenerating through targeting cellular senescence. To test it, aged, degenerated human IVD cells were treated with rhPDGF-AB or -BB and transcriptome profiling was performed on treated NP and AF cells. We found similar but distinct responses to the treatment between NP and AF cells. In NP cells, PDGF-AB and -BB treatment upregulated the expression of PDGFRA and genes involved in cell cycle progression while downregulating the expression of genes related to ROS production, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial function. The alterations in these pathways indicated that the senescent phenotype was alleviated in human degenerated IVD cells treated with PDGF-AB/BB.