Distinct gut and disc microbiota profiles in patients with disc degenerative disease

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a multifactorial process and a major contributor to chronic low back pain worldwide. While mechanical stress, aging, and genetic factors have traditionally been implicated in disc pathology, emerging evidence highlights the potential role of systemic influences, particularly the gut microbiome. Gut dysbiosis an imbalance in the intestinal microbial community, can disrupt immune homeostasis, promote systemic inflammation. These changes may contribute to the initiation and progression of degenerative changes in disc tissue.Disc and fecal samples were collected from patients diagnosed with degenerative disc disease (DDD) who sought treatment at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar Comprehensive clinical data were recorded for each participant, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), Pfirrmann grading of disc degeneration, visual analogue scale (VAS) scores for pain assessment, and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores for functional impairment. DNA was extracted from both fecal and disc tissue samples and subsequently sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The sequencing was performed with MiSeq v2 paired-end reagents, generating 250 base pair (bp) paired-end reads.The anticipated conclusion of the microbiome sequencing and diversity study may be that there is compositional shifts, particularly the strong presence of potentially pro-inflammatory taxa in the disc, align with elevated systemic inflammatory markers such as NLR in affected individuals. While causality cannot be conclusively drawn, the dominance of specific genera in disc tissue hints at microbial involvement in local immune activation or sustained tissue stress responses. The findings emphasize the need to further explore the role of translocated or tissue-adapted microbes in the context of disc degeneration and systemic inflammation.