Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Analyzing the effect of cytokines and inflammatory mediators in the lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration may contribute to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration, and guide the clinical orthopedic surgeons for the prevention and treatment of degenerative disc disease.
OBJECTIVE: To multi-level explore and analyze the effect of cytokines and inflammatory mediators on lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration.
METHODS: A computer-based search was performed in CNKI database from January 2002 to December 2011 for the literatures related to the effect of cytokines and inflammatory mediators in the lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration. The key words were “lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration, cytokines, inflammatory mediators” in Chinese, and the analysis capabilities of the database and Excel chart function were used to analyze the data characteristics.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 76 articles related to the effect of cytokines and inflammatory mediators in the lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration were screened out from CNKI database from 2002 to 2011. The number of the literature was on an increasing trend. The research about the effect of cytokines and inflammatory mediators on lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration mainly depended on immunohistochemistry, and most of the researches were about the quantitative, qualitative and accurate expression of inflammatory mediators. So the cytokines and inflammatory mediators play an important role in regulating the complex pathological process of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration.