The expression of aquaporin-1 in various degenerative human intervertebral discs and its significance

Objective To observe the changes of the expression of aquaporin-1(AQP-1) in various degenerative human intervertebral discs,and to investigate its relationship with intervertebral disk degeneration.Methods Thirty intervertebral disc samples were collected from patients with prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc during operation,including protrusion,extrusion and sequestration type and 10 samples for each type.Ten intervertebral disc samples in control group were collected from patients who had lumbar vertebral fractures.The expression of AQP-1 in lumbar intervertebral disc was detected using immunohistochemistry method.Results The result of hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that the intervertebral disc tissue in control group still maintained a dense lamellar structure,while the intervertebral disc tissue in study group presented fibrotic changes.The expression of AQP-1 in nucleus cells in both groups was significantly higher than that in fibrous ring cells(P≤0.01).The expression of AQP-1 in the protrusion specimen,including nucleus cells and fibrous ring cells,in study group was significantly lower than that in control group(P0.01).And the expression of AQP-1 in both extrusion type and sequestration type specimen was significantly lower than that in protrusion type specimen(P0.01).Conclusion The expression of AQP-1 decreases along with protrusion,extrusion,and sequestration stages of the intervertebral disc degeneration.