Original ArticlePercutaneous Needle Puncture Technique to Create a Rabbit Model with Traumatic Degenerative Disk Disease
Introduction
Intervertebral disk degeneration (IDD) accounts for >20% of individuals with low back pain. The pathogenesis of IDD is not fully understood, but aging is a major contributing factor. Thus, due to the aging population, the prevalence of degenerative spinal diseases, including IDD, is expected to increase.
IDD is treated mainly with surgical methods, although conservative treatments, including physical therapy, medication, and nerve blocks, are also used. Recent developments in biology, technology, and tissue engineering have enhanced the understanding of the pathogenesis and improved the management of disk degeneration. Much research is now focused on treating the disk itself 4, 23, and many groups of investigators are developing animal models of IDD.
The first animal model of IDD was introduced in 1948 9, 16, using a scalpel to stab the disk during surgery, resulting in disk degeneration. Since that time various methods have been explored, and certain key factors were proposed to produce the optimal animal model of IDD. The experimental animal should be easily obtained and inexpensive to manage. The disk needs to be easy to approach surgically and be of adequate size. Disk degeneration should occur reliably and quickly (10). Ideally, a disk degeneration model should be clinically applicable, progressive and reproducible, use a small animal, and be detectable by conventional radiography within 1 month (16).
In the present study, we present a percutaneous technique to induce degenerative disk disease in rabbits, and report the reproducibility and efficacy of this technique.
Section snippets
General Overview
Ten New Zealand white rabbits (2.5 kg body weight) were used with Institutional Animal Care Use Committee (number: HY-IACUC-10-029) approval. Anesthesia was induced with an intramuscular injection of 27.78 mg/kg tiletamine/zolazepam (Zoletil; Virbac Laboratories, Carros, France) and 0.647 mg/kg 2% xylazine hydrochloride (Rompun; Bayer Korea, Seoul, Korea). Percutaneous surgical intervention was performed at the intervertebral disks (IVD) at levels L2-L3, L3-L4, and L4-L5. The L1-L2 level was
Findings Related to the Surgical Intervention
Two of the 10 rabbits suffered complications after surgery. These complications were death (1 rabbit) and weakness of the right hind limb (1 rabbit). Data from the rabbit with motor weakness were included because the rabbit survived until the final evaluation, without abnormal growth when compared with the other rabbits.
Ratio of the IVD Change
Plain x-ray images did not show definite cortical osteophyte formation until the final evaluation. Although the IVD height did not decrease until 4 weeks on plain radiographs, a
Anatomic and Physiologic Considerations of the Rabbit IDD Model
Rabbits are quadrupeds with 7 lumbar vertebrae. Unlike bipeds, degenerative changes are not concentrated at lower lumbar disk levels, but can occur equally at all lumbar spine levels. Therefore, different levels within the same animal were used as control and injured disks.
The L5-L6 and L6-7 disk spaces can only be exposed by open surgery from an anterior approach (10). These levels are not easy to access by percutaneous needle puncture due to the iliac bone covering the posterolateral aspect
Conclusions
The percutaneous needle puncture technique is useful because it is an easy technique, is noninvasive, uses a low dose of anesthetics, has a low risk of death, and induces gradual disk degeneration. Therefore, this technique is useful to produce degeneration in rabbits and to research the management of intervertebral disk disease.
Acknowledgments
The English grammar was revised by eWorldEditing, Inc. and supported by Hanyang University. The English grammar was additionally revised by Bioedit.
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Vascular anatomy-based localization of intervertebral discs assisting needle puncture for constructing a mouse model of mechanical injury-induced lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration
2022, Biochemical and Biophysical Research CommunicationsCitation Excerpt :The latter model is the most widely used at present, and is constructed using surgical AF puncture, which results in pathological changes in the injured IVD and subsequently leads to IDD [20–22]. In rabbits, this type of mechanical injury (disc puncture) results in persistent IVD changes, such as long-lasting nerve ingrowth, disc constriction, and histological reorganization lasting for 3, 4, and 12 months after the surgery, respectively [23–25]. At present, large experimental animals such as rats and rabbits are usually selected for constructing animal models of IDD.
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Conflict of interest statement: This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-2012-G).