Figure 4: Schematic representations of an intervertebral disc and anulus fibrosus sample showing (A) An isolated intervertebral disc, with posterior elements removed, showing the three regions of disc from which samples were obtained and the cutting planes used to create square cross-section samples [35] (B) A single anulus fibrosus sample, demonstrating that for a sample cross sectional dimension of 2 mm x 2 mm (C) Collagen fibre inclination in each sample [58,59].