Intervertebral disc degeneration, a loose definition for a more complex pathology? Insights from aging inbred mouse strains

Intervertebral disc degeneration is an important contributor to chronic low back pain. While a wide spectrum of clinically relevant degenerative disc phenotypes have been observed during aging, their molecular underpinning have not been established. We used microarrays to explore the transcriptomics of differentially expressed genes during aging (6M to 23M) in two strains: C57BL/6 and LG/J. NP tissue was dissected from caudal discs of 6M and 23M BL6 mice (n=7), LG/J (n=5/6) RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. 6- and 23-month time point were choosen to explore the trancsriptome signature of young and old mice's nucleus pulposus, respectively.