THURSDAY, Sept. 18 (HealthDay News) -- The cytokine interleukin (IL)-20 -- which is involved in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis -- was found in herniated intervertebral disc tissue and may be involved in the pathogenesis of disc herniation, according to research published in the Sept. 1 issue of Spine.
Kuo-Yuan Huang, M.D., of the National Cheng Kung University Medical Center in Tainan, Taiwan, and colleagues analyzed samples of disc tissue from 20 adults with herniated discs and also cultured cells from patients' herniated disc material.
IL-20 was found in 65 percent of tissue samples, and its receptor subunits IL-20R1, IL-20R2, and IL-22R1 were found in 80 to 90 percent of samples. IL-20 and its receptors were also found in isolated disc cells. The researchers found that the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β could induce expression of IL-20 in disc cells. In primarily cultured disc cells, IL-20 in combination with IL-1β induced transcripts of tumor necrosis factor-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, matrix metalloproteinase-3 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 to a higher degree than in cells treated with either alone.
"The expression and secretion of IL-20 in inflamed human intervertebral disc tissues acts in an autocrine manner to modulate the subsequent inflammatory reaction and angiogenesis in the healing process of herniated discs or the degenerative process of intervertebral discs. Therefore, our present study revealed that IL-20 combined with IL-1β contribute to the pathogenesis of human intervertebral disc herniation by promoting inflammation, chemotaxis, angiogenesis and matrix degradation," the authors conclude.
Abstract
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