Effects of Hyaluronic Acid on the Expression of Aggrecan and ADAMTSs in Human Nucleus Pulposus Cells

ZHANG Chuhang; QIAN Shenglong; WANG Huasong; HUANG Ming

doi:10.13730/j.issn.2097-2148.2024.09.003

Abstract：Objective To investigate the effect of hyaluronic acid(HA)on the expression of aggrecan and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs(ADAMTSs)in human nucleus pulposus cells,and to explore the mechanism of HA regulating ADAMTSs in alleviating intervertebral disc degeneration(IDD).Methods Normal and degenerated human in-tervertebral disc nucleus pulposus was obtained according to Pfirrmann classification,nucleus pulposus cells were cultured by the tissue block method.The nuclear pulposus tissue samples of patients after surgery were divided into normal group(normal inter-vertebral disc),normal treatment group(normal intervertebral disc),degenerative group(degenerative intervertebral disc)and degenerative treatment group(degenerative intervertebral disc),with 10 samples in each.Nucleus pulposus cells in normal and degenerative groups did not receive HA intervention,and the normal treatment group and the degenerative treatment group re-ceived HA 1 mg/ml intervention 1 h before pressure.IDD models were constructed by nucleus pulposus tissue cells in each group.The mRNA expression of aggrecan and ADAMTSs in each group was detected by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR);the protein expression of ADAMTSs was detected by Western blot.Results After the treatment of HA,the mRNA expression of aggrecan in normal treatment group and degenerated group was higher than that before intervention(all P＜0.05),and the mRNA expression of ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5 was significantly reduced(all P＜0.05),whereas the mRNA expression of AD AMTS-1 had no significant change compared with that before intervention(P＞0.05).Western blot analysis result shows that protein levels of ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5 were significantly reduced compared with that before in-tervention(all P＜0.05).Conclusion Hyaluronic acid may retard IDD by reducing the expression of ADAMTSs to decrease their degradation of aggrecan.