Disc inflammation and intercellular communication in shaping the immune microenvironment of intervertebral disc degeneration.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a major cause of low back pain, significantly affecting the quality of life of elderly individuals worldwide. Its pathogenesis is complex, involving extracellular matrix degradation, inflammatory responses, and immune regulation.

Methods

This study integrated multiple transcriptomic and single-cell RNA-seq datasets, and systematically identified and validated key IDD-related genes and their immune regulatory roles through differential gene analysis, GO/KEGG enrichment, PPI network construction, ANN, LASSO, random forest, SVM-RFE, SHAP, Mendelian Randomization, as well as immune cell infiltration and CellChat analyses. The identified candidate genes were further validated experimentally using Western blot, confirming their

SUBMITTER: Wei M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12672235 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature