<scp>IL‐1Ra</scp> deficiency accelerates intervertebral disc degeneration in <scp>C57BL6J</scp> mice
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The expression of Interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) and its antagonist and Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) are correlated with greater human intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, suggesting that elevated IL-1β activity promotes disc degeneration. Many in vitro studies support such a mechanistic relationship, whereas few in vivo investigations have been reported. The present study tests the effect of increased IL-1β activity on intervertebral disc in mice with an IL-1Ra gene deletion. IL-1Ra-/- mice and wild-type (WT) C57Bl6J mice were examined at 3 and 12 months of age. Caudal IVD segments were evaluated for disc degeneration by histopathology, functional testing, and inflammatory gene expression relevant to IL-1β pathways. To test differences in injury response, pinprick annular puncture was performed on IL-1Ra-/- and WT mice and evaluated similarly. IL-1Ra-/- IVDs had significantly worse histopathology at 3 months compared to WT controls, but not at 12 months. IL-1Ra-/- IVDs exhibited significantly more viscous mechanical properties than WT IVDs. qPCR revealed downregulation of inflammatory genes at 3 and 12 months in IL-1Ra-/- IVDs, with concomitant downregulation of anabolic and catabolic genes. Annular puncture yielded no appreciable differences between 2-week and 6-week post-injured WT and IL1-Ra-/- IVDs in histopathology or biomechanics, but inflammatory gene expression was sharply downregulated in IL-1Ra-/- mice at 2 weeks, returning by 6 weeks post injury. In the present study, IL-1Ra deletion resulted in increased IVD histopathology, inferior biomechanics, and transiently decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression. The histopathology of IL-1Ra-/- IVDs on a C57BL/6J background is less severe than a previous report of IL1Ra-/- on a BALB/c background, yet both strains exhibit IVD degeneration, reinforcing a mechanistic role of IL-1β signaling in IVD pathobiology. Despite a pro-inflammatory environment, the annular puncture was no worse in IL-1Ra-/- mice, suggesting that response to injury involves pathways other than inflammation. Overall, this study supports the hypothesis that IL-1β-driven inflammation is important in IVD degeneration.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".