ISSN: 2161-0681

Journal of Clinical & Experimental Pathology
Open Access

Our Group organises 3000+ Global Conferenceseries Events every year across USA, Europe & Asia with support from 1000 more scientific Societies and Publishes 700+ Open Access Journals which contains over 50000 eminent personalities, reputed scientists as editorial board members.

Open Access Journals gaining more Readers and Citations
700 Journals and 15,000,000 Readers Each Journal is getting 25,000+ Readers

This Readership is 10 times more when compared to other Subscription Journals (Source: Google Analytics)
  • Research Article   
  • J Clin Exp Pathol 2015, Vol 6(1): 265
  • DOI: 10.4172/2161-0681.1000265

The Microscopic Pictures of Degenerative Intervertebral Disc of Different Diseases with Additional Safranin-O Stain

Chi-Min Shih1, Jui-Teng Chien2,5, Shu-Fen Lai3, Tzung-Yi Tsai4 and Keng-Chang Liu2,5*
1Department of Pathology, Chia-Yi Hospital, Ministry of Health and welfare, Taiwan
2Department of Orthopaedics, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
3Department of Pathology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
4Department of Research, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
5School of Medicine, Buddhist Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
*Corresponding Author : Keng-Chang Liu, Department of Orthopaedics, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, 2, Min Sheng Rd. Dalin township,Chiayi 622, R.O.C, Taiwan, Tel: +886-5-2648-000, Fax: +886-5-2648-006, Email: kcliu@tzuchi.com.tw

Received Date: Jan 19, 2016 / Accepted Date: Feb 08, 2016 / Published Date: Feb 10, 2016

Abstract

Background: The lumbar spine and cervical spine are vulnerable with degeneration, which is related to idiosyncratic problem, aging or improper stress of the spine. Biochemical and structural changes of disc, narrowing of intervertebral disc space, acute or chronic disc protrusion related to disc degeneration with/without neural symptoms are well documented. We are interested in the morphologic changes of the excised herniated or degenerative discs from the spinal surgeries for herniated intervertebral disc (HIVD), spondylolisthesis or spinal stenosis.

Methods: The specimens are collected under the permission of institutional review board (IRB), and are divided into three main groups, including 9 specimens (9 cases) of HIVD, 12 specimens (10 cases) of spondylolisthesis, and 10 specimens (10 cases) of spinal stenosis. Five disc specimens of 3 cadavers (3 from lumbar L4-5 disc and 2 from thoracic T9-10 disc) with no mentioned disc disease are obtained for control group. Histochemical stains of hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) stain and safranin-O-fast green stain are performed to evaluate the content of glycosaminoglycans and chondrocytic proliferation. The photos of disc lesions are taken with consistent LED light of Niko n Coolscope II to analyze the discoloration within the H and E and safranin-O stained sections. Kruskal-Wallis test (one-way ANOVA) was performed for significance check.

Results: HIVD cases have younger age (p=0.036). The excised disc specimens of HIVD group show mild loss of glycosaminoglycans over nucleus pulposus, and even less eosinophilic change in the nucleus pulposus. The discs of spondylolisthesis and spinal stenosis groups may display uneven loss of glycosaminoglycans with occasionally massive loss, and more eosinophilic change than that of HIVD group (p=0.014). Clonal proliferation of chondrocytes over the areas other than endplate and outer rim of annulus fibrosus is a consistent phenomenon in all three groups of degenerative discs, and displaying lesser degree of chondrocytic proliferation among the HIVD cases without significant difference.

Conclusion: We notice that focal eosinophilic change or even necrosis of extracellular matrix is probable an important pathologic picture of degenerative disc and clonal proliferation of chondrocytes is present in all 3 groups of degenerative intervertebral discs. The chondrocytic proliferation in the disc fibrocartilage might be similar to the chondrocytic proliferation within the articular cartilage of grade 3-4/6 knee osteoarthritis.

Keywords: Chondrocytic proliferation; Colorimetry analysis; Degenerative intervertebral disc; Safranin-O-fast green stain

Citation: Shih CM, Chien JT, Lai SF, Tsai TY, Liu KC (2016) The Microscopic Pictures of Degenerative Intervertebral Disc of Different Diseases with Additional Safranin-O Stain. J Clin Exp Pathol 6:265. Doi: 10.4172/2161-0681.1000265

Copyright: © 2016 Shih CM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Review summary

  1. Satyanand
    Posted on Jul 14 2016 at 11:45 pm
    In this manuscript, the authors studied the pathological and morphological changes in intervertebral discs by conducting a comparative analysis on vertebral disc specimens from four groups i.e. HIVD, spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis, and cadaver control. The authors presented their findings in both qualitative and quantitative ways. This study report will be an informative addition to the literature.
Top