Cytokine Imbalance as a Biomarker of Intervertebral Disk Degeneration

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 24; no. 3; p. 2360
• Main Authors: Shnayder, Natalia A, Ashhotov, Azamat V, Trefilova, Vera V, Nurgaliev, Zaitun A, Novitsky, Maxim A, Vaiman, Elena E, Petrova, Marina M, Nasyrova, Regina F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 25-01-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Aging; Anti-Inflammatory Agents - therapeutic use; Apoptosis; Back pain; biomarker; Biomarkers; Chemokines; Children; chronic inflammation; Collagen; cytokine status; Cytokines; Cytokines - therapeutic use; Degeneration; disk degeneration; Extracellular matrix; Humans; Hypotheses; Inflammation; Intervertebral Disc; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration - drug therapy; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration - genetics; Intervertebral Disc Displacement - drug therapy; Intervertebral discs; Ligaments; Metabolism; pathophysiology; Proteins; Review; Spinal stenosis; Spondylosis; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; cytokine status; cytokines; biomarker; chronic inflammation; disk degeneration; pathophysiology
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24032360

The intervertebral disk degeneration (IDD) and its associated conditions are an important problem in modern medicine. The onset of IDD may be in childhood and adolescence in patients with a genetic predisposition. IDD progresses with age, leading to spondylosis, spondylarthrosis, intervertebral disk herniation, and spinal stenosis. The purpose of this review is an attempt to summarize the data characterizing the patterns of production of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in IDD and to appreciate the prognostic value of cytokine imbalance as its biomarker. This narrative review demonstrates that the problem of evaluating the contribution of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines to the maintenance or alteration of cytokine balance may be a new key to unlocking the mystery of IDD development and new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of IDD in the setting of acute and chronic inflammation. The presented data support the hypothesis that cytokine imbalance is one of the most important biomarkers of IDD.