Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 23 pp 24242—24254

Figure 1. The expression of TNFAIP3 in human nucleus pulposus tissues. (A, B) TNFAIP3 expression was measured by immunohistochemistry from the IVD section from LVF and IVDD patients (magnification × 100, n>5). (B) Human NPCs expressing TNFAIP3 were enumerated from the above sections, results are expressed as a percent of the total number of NPCs. (C) TNFAIP3 expression was measured at the mRNA level by qPCR from the primary cell culture of the NPCs from LVF patients. Con and LPS, cell culture representatively treated with no and with LPS, data are shown by the mean ± standard deviation from 3 independent replicates. *** P<0.01, ** P<0.05, * P>0.05 by t-test. TNFAIP3, tumor necrosis factor α-induction protein 3; IVD, intervertebral disc; LVF, patients with lumbar vertebral fracture as non-IVDD controls; IVDD, patients with intervertebral disc degeneration; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; Con, normal human NPCs culture from LVF patients with no LPS treatment; LPS, the normal human NP cell culture treated with LPS at 200 ng/mL for 24 h.