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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2014 May 10;22(7):980–985. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2014.04.027

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

In the left column, Thompson grades are defined based on anatomical changes in the nucleus pulposus (NP), annulus fibrosus (AF), endplate (EP; mainly cartilage, but includes changes to adjacent subchondral bone), and adjacent vertebral bodies (VB). Examples of various grades from specimens analyzed in this study are depicted via gross anatomy images and histology sections. Histology sections in figure are stained with Mallory-Heidenhain.