The distribution and arrangement of elastic fibres in the intervertebral disc of the adult human

Abstract

Selected cervical and thoracic intervertebral discs were removed from twelve human adults at autopsy. The discs were prepared by the paraffin method, stained with orcein or by Verhoff's technique and examined with the light microscope for the presence of elastic fibres. Elastic fibres were located only in the lamellae of the anulus fibrosus and the superficial zones of the nucleus pulposus from regions of intervertebral disc that connected or interfaced with osseous vertebrae. Elastic fibres were longitudinally, circularly and obliquely arranged in lamellae of the anulus fibrosus and penetrated bony vertebrae as Sharpey's fibres. Elastic fibres assumed a three dimensional lattice work in the superficial zone of the nucleus pulposus and connected it to the hyaline cartilage end plate as Sharpey's fibres. Irregularly arranged elastic fibres interconnected the superficial zone of the nucleus pulposus and lamellae of the anulus fibrosus. Elastic fibres were a major histological component of the ligamenta flava and anterior longitudinal ligaments.