ArticleArthritis research & therapy2009
Intradiscal injection of simvastatin retards progression of intervertebral disc degeneration induced by stab injury.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- ITGBL1 and RPN1 Mark a Fibrotic NP Subpopulation with Coupled Integrin Signaling and N-Glycosylation Programs in IVDD.Journal of inflammation research · 2026Article
- The protective effect and experimental research progress of pleotropic statins in intervertebral disc degeneration.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2025Review
- Does intradiscal steroid injection accelerate the histological degeneration of the human disc?Osteoporosis and sarcopenia · 2024Article
- SR9009 attenuates inflammation-related NPMSC pyroptosis and IVDD through NR1D1/NLRP3/IL-1β pathway.iScience · 2024Article
- Stress-Activated Protein Kinases in Intervertebral Disc Degeneration: Unraveling the Impact of JNK and p38 MAPK.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Hydrogel-Based Strategies for Intervertebral Disc Regeneration: Advances, Challenges and Clinical Prospects.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Stimuli-Responsive Delivery Systems for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration.International journal of nanomedicine · 2024Review
- Review
- Article
- Development, Pathogenesis, and Regeneration of the Intervertebral Disc: Current and Future Insights Spanning Traditional to Omics Methods.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Bone morphogenic protein-2 signaling in human disc degeneration and correlation to the Pfirrmann MRI grading system.The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society · 2021Article
- Animal models of regenerative medicine for biological treatment approaches of degenerative disc diseases.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2021Review
- Inverse Agonist of Retinoid-Related Orphan Receptor-Alpha Prevents Apoptosis and Degeneration in Nucleus Pulposus Cells via Upregulation of YAP.Mediators of inflammation · 2021Article
- Applications of Functionalized Hydrogels in the Regeneration of the Intervertebral Disc.BioMed research international · 2021Review
- Minimally Invasive and Regenerative Therapeutics.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2019Review
- Leaping the hurdles in developing regenerative treatments for the intervertebral disc from preclinical to clinical.JOR spine · 2018Article
- Effect of an increased dosage of statins on spinal degenerative joint disease: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2018Article
- A novel electrospun-aligned nanoyarn/three-dimensional porous nanofibrous hybrid scaffold for annulus fibrosus tissue engineering.International journal of nanomedicine · 2018Article
- Simvastatin Inhibits IL-1β-Induced Apoptosis and Extracellular Matrix Degradation by Suppressing the NF-kB and MAPK Pathways in Nucleus Pulposus Cells.Inflammation · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionEarlier work indicates that the cholesterol-lowering drug, simvastatin, is anabolic to chondrogenic expression of rat intervertebral disc (IVD) cells, which suggests a potential role for simvastatin in IVD regeneration. In this study, we expand on our earlier work to test the effectiveness of simvastatin on disc degeneration utilizing a rat tail disc degeneration model.
methods30 rats that underwent 21 G needle-puncture at rat tail discs were injected with simvastatin-loaded poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-PLGA-PEG) gel (5 mg/ml) or vehicle control at 4 weeks after needle injury. All animals were sacrificed 2 weeks after simvastatin injection. Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), aggrecan, collagen type II, and collagen type I messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression in the rat nucleus pulposus (NP) were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed to monitor changes in disc degeneration. Rat discs were also assessed by histology using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and safranin O staining. In addition, the NP weight, glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) and DNA content were also measured.
resultsA single dose of simvastatin loaded in thermo-sensitive PEG-PLGA-PEG gel injected into the NP had the trend to increase aggrecan expression and sGAG content, and significantly increased mRNA levels of BMP-2, collagen type II, and the differentiation index (the ratio of collagen type II to collagen type I). The decreased NP weight, T2 intensity, as well as MRI index in the rat tail discs induced by needle puncture were significantly reversed after 2 weeks of simvastatin treatment. In addition, simvastatin treatment also improved histological changes induced by needle puncture.
conclusionsA single injection of simvastatin loaded in PEG-PLGA-PEG gel into rat tail discs had the potential to retard or regenerate the degenerative disc.
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