Establishment of a Rabbit Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Model by Percutaneous Posterolateral Puncturing of Lumbar Discs Under Local Anesthesia.

OBJECTIVE:An anterior approach is applied to establish the majority of rabbit intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) models in current studies. However, for research on disc repair via biomaterial implantation and tissue engineering, this traditional model establishment method has many shortcomings, such as the risk of general anesthesia, unnecessary tissue damage, and the influence of scar formation on the visual field for secondary implantation surgery. The aim of this study was to report a modified method of establishing an IDD model by applying percutaneous posterolateral puncturing for rabbit lumbar disc surgery under local anesthesia. METHODS:We built a rabbit model of IDD by percutaneous posterolateral annulus fibrosus puncturing (AFP) (with or without nucleus pulposus aspiration [NPA]) under local anesthesia. Then, we analyzed the outcome after 12 weeks via magnetic resonance images, disc height changes, and disc histologic grades determined from morphologic observation and histologic analyses (hematoxylin and eosin and safranin-O staining and type II collagen expression analysis). RESULTS:The IDD model was successfully built based on both AFP and AFP/NPA, as demonstrated by the results of magnetic resonance imaging index, morphologic, and histologic analyses. Both methods can successfully produce an IDD model after 12 weeks. However, we found that the addition of NPA significantly enhanced the modeling results. CONCLUSIONS:Our results show that percutaneous posterolateral AFP/NPA of rabbit lumbar discs under local anesthesia is a minimally invasive, safe and reproducible method of establishing an IDD model. The posterolateral surgical approach is especially suitable for disc regeneration studies that require secondary biomaterial implantation via an anterior approach after the IDD model is established.