Radiographic Progression of Lumbar Spine Disc Degeneration Is Influenced by Variation at Inflammatory Genes

STUDY DESIGN: A candidate gene association study in a longitudinal cohort. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between polymorphisms at 25 candidate genes and progression of individual radiographic features of lumbar disc degeneration (LDD). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: LDD is characterized radiographically by the presence of osteophytes and disc space narrowing and is known to have a genetic component. Because of the high prevalence of radiographic features, progression may be a more useful phenotype clinically to study than prevalence itself. METHODS: We tested the effect on radiographic progression of LDD of polymorphisms in 25 genes, 24 of which had been previously tested with regards to knee osteoarthritis. The progression traits used were the change in radiographic grade over 9 years in…