The degradome of the human intervertebral disc

The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a joint in the spine that facilitates daily physical activity, comprising of the central nucleus pulposus (NP), surrounded by the annulus fibrosus (AF) and sandwiched between two cartilage endplates that function together as a unit. Changes to the IVD occur with aging, most drastically in the NP where it experiences dehydration and loss of cellularity, directly impacting on the integrity of the biomechanical functions of the IVD. We were interested in examining the types of degraded proteins in young and aged disc samples to further understand the protein turnover in aging and homeostasis. We analysed the degradome for degraded proteins using terminal amine isotopic labeling of substrates (TAILS) Clinical specimens from spine surgeries for scoliosis (young samples, n=3) or degeneration (aged samples, n=3) were used in this study.