ArticleThe spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society2025
The association of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration with low back pain is modified by underlying genetic propensity to pain.
Article in The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Associations Between Sum Scores or Combinations of MRI Findings in the Lumbar Spine and Low Back Pain-Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- STAT3/POSTN/GSTP1/JNK Axis Orchestrates Ferroptosis in Nucleus Pulposus Cells: A Potential Therapeutic Target for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration.Neurospine · 2026Article
- FBXO2 Alleviates Intervertebral Disc Degeneration via Dual Mechanisms: Activating PINK1-Parkin Mitophagy and Ubiquitinating LCN2 to Suppress Ferroptosis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Comprehensive Analysis of Chronic Low Back Pain: Morphological and Functional Impairments, Physical Activity Patterns, and Epidemiology in a German Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) comes of age: 18 years of efficient and effective patient-reported outcome measurement in the field of spinal disorders. Part 1. Development of the COMI, interpretation of scores, and use in research.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Review
- Identification and validation of novel risk genes for intervertebral disc disorder by integrating large-scale multi-omics analyses and experimental studies.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
background contextAssociations between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-detected lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (LDD) and LBP are often of modest magnitude. This association may be larger in specific patient subgroups. PURPOSE: To examine whether the association between LDD and LBP is modified by underlying genetic predispositions to pain. STUDY
designCross-sectional study in UK Biobank (UKB) and Twins UK. PATIENT SAMPLES: A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the number of anatomical chronic pain locations was conducted in 347,538 UKB participants. The GWAS was used to develop a genome-wide polygenic risk score (PRS) in a holdout sample of 30,000 UKB participants. The PRS model was then used in analyses of 645 TwinsUK participants with standardized LDD MRI assessments. OUTCOME MEASURES: Ever having had LBP associated with disability lasting ≥1 month (LBP1).
methodsUsing the PRS as a proxy for "genetically-predicted propensity to pain", we stratified TwinsUK participants into PRS quartiles. A "basic" model examined the association between an LDD summary score (LSUM) and LBP1, adjusting for covariates. A "fully-adjusted" model also adjusted for PRS quartile and LSUM x PRS quartile interaction terms.
resultsIn the basic model, the odds ratio (OR) of LBP1 was 1.8 per standard deviation of LSUM (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-2.3). In the fully-adjusted model, there was a statistically significant LSUM-LBP1 association in quartile 4, the highest PRS quartile (OR=2.5 [95% CI 1.7-3.7], p=2.6×10
conclusionsGenetically-predicted propensity to pain modifies the LDD-LBP association, with the strongest association present in people with the highest genetic propensity to pain. Lumbar MRI findings may have stronger connections to LBP in specific subgroups of people.
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