The inferior (I) and superior (S) surfaces were evaluated in the posterior (P), lateral (L), intermediate zone (IZ), medial (M), and anterior (A) regions. A) Deformed discs had higher cell density compared to morphologically normal discs and regional variations were detected. B) There were no significant differences in sGAG content between deformed and normal discs, but significant regional variations were present. Regional variations detected by three way ANOVA are denoted by not sharing a letter indicating significant difference in post-hoc testing (p<0.005).