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Review
. 2018;4(4):143-150.
doi: 10.1007/s40610-018-0101-2. Epub 2018 Aug 3.

Intervertebral Disc Biology: Genetic Basis of Disc Degeneration

Sabrina Munir  1 , Marinko Rade  2   3 , Juhani H Määttä  1   4 , Maxim B Freidin  1 , Frances M K Williams  1
Affiliations
Review

Intervertebral Disc Biology: Genetic Basis of Disc Degeneration

Sabrina Munir et al. Curr Mol Biol Rep. 2018.

Abstract

Purpose of review: This review aims to highlight recent advances in understanding the genetic basis of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD).

Recent findings: It has been known for some time that IDD is highly heritable. Recent studies, and in particular the availability of agnostic techniques such as genome-wide association studies, have identified new variants in a variety of genes which contribute to the risk of IDD and to back pain.

Summary: A variety of genetic variants are involved in IDD. Some are shared with variants predisposing to back pain, but few have been identified reliably in either phenotype. Further research is required to explain fully the high heritability and how the genetic variants influence cell biology to lead to IDD.

Keywords: Candidate genes; GWAS; Heritability; Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD); Low back pain (LBP); Spine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Sabrina Munir, Juhani H Määttä, Marinko Rade, Maxim B Freidin and Frances MK Williams each declare no potential conflicts of interest.This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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