Response of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Intervertebral Disc Degeneration by Promoting Autophagy and Apoptosis

Yan Wang, Haibin Wang, Zhongyi Sun, Hongzhi Sun, Uzair Ur-Rehman and Jiwei Tian

Background and Objective: Recent years have witnessed the increasing incidence of Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), the basic pathological changes of many spinal degenerative diseases. The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of HO-1 on autophagy of nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) in IDD rats, to provide a new target for IDD treatment. Materials and Methods: About 40 SD rats were randomly divided into four groups: Model, blank, HO-1 and control group. Model group rats were established IDD model only. The blank group was infected with an Adeno-associated virus packaged with an empty vector. HO-1 group rats were infected with HO-1 overexpression Adeno-associated virus vector. Control group rats were fed normally. After modelling, HO-1 mRNA levels, pain threshold and inclined plane test (IPT) score were measured. IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, SOD and MDA were detected by ELISA. NPCs were isolated to detect cell multiplication and apoptosis. Beclin-1 and LC-3 in NPCs were determined by western blot. Results: The model and the blank group had similar HO-1 mRNA (p>0.05), pain threshold and IPT scores were lower than the control group and higher than the HO-1 group (p<0.05). IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and MDA increased, while SOD decreased (p<0.05). In vitro, the multiplication capacity of NPCs was highest in the control group (p<0.05), Beclin-1 and LC-3 protein expression in blank and model groups were the same (p<0.05) but was higher than control and lower than HO-1 group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Elevation in IDD, HO-1 can exacerbate inflammation and oxidative stress via activating NPC autophagy, which may be the key to future treatment of IDD.

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