Effects of Growth Hormone on the Degenerative Changes in the Intervertebral Disc of Rabbits

Park, Young Jin; Han, Seoung Ho; Hwang, In Kyung

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Growth hormone is expected to delay the degenerative changes of the intervertebral disc and affect the initial recovery process of cartilage injury, but these effects are still open to disputes.
METHODS
This researcher injected growth hormone to the intervertebral disc and subcutaneous tissue of rabbits whose degenerative change were induced artificially, and evaluated the treatment effects of growth hormone through a comparison between the injected and control groups of rabbits. The intervertebral discs between the 3th and 4th vertebrae were extracted 4 weeks after the administration of growth hormone and then histologically graded in a quantitative method. Changes in the height of the intervertebral discs were measured after the induction of degenerative changes. After four weeks of the treatment, then, the height changes were measured.
RESULTS
In the subcutaneous-growth hormone injected group, any consistent, sequential, and progressive degeneration of the annular fibrosus was not observed through histopathological studies. The disc height also sequentially did not decrease from that at the time of the injury set in this study.
CONCLUSIONS
Considering the histopathological findings of the study, the researcher suggests that subcutaneous injection of growth hormone will be a therapeutic model of disc degeneration. But further biochemical or electromicroscopic studies are necessary to clarify the mechanism of delay degenerative disc changes by growth hormone.