This study aimed to investigate the correlation of long noncoding RNA zinc finger antisense 1 (lncRNA ZFAS1) expression with disease risk, disease severity and inflammatory cytokines levels in lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) patients.
83 LDD patients underwent surgery and 28 traumatized, non-LDD patients underwent lumbar disc surgery (controls) were consecutively enrolled in this case-control study. Lumbar disc tissue was obtained during surgery and herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) was isolated to detect lncRNA ZFAS1 expression and inflammatory cytokines mRNA levels by RT-qPCR, and determine protein levels of inflammatory cytokines by western blot.
HNP lncRNA ZFAS1 expression in LDD patients was up-regulated compared with controls ( P < .001), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed lncRNA ZFAS1 expression disclosed a good predictive value for LDD risk with area under curve (AUC) 0.753 (95% CI 0.646–0.859). And after adjustment by age, gender and body mass index (BMI), lncRNA ZFAS1 ( P = .017) remained to be an independent predictive factor for higher LDD risk. In addition, lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was positively associated with Modified Pfirrmann Grade ( P = .015). As to inflammatory cytokines, lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was observed to be positively correlated with TNF-α ( P = .002), IL-1β ( P = .007) and IL-6 ( P = .015) mRNAs expressions while reversely associated with IL-10 mRNA level ( P = .014); and lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was also positively correlated with protein levels of TNF-α ( P = .038) and IL-6 ( P = .027) while reversely associated with IL-10 protein expression ( P = .039).
lncRNA ZFAS1 expression associates with increased risk, elevated disease severity and higher inflammatory cytokines levels in LDD patients.
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