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. 2019 Oct 16;21:213. doi: 10.1186/s13075-019-1990-z

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© The Author(s). 2019

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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Fig. 7 — The role of JAG2/Notch2 in the regulation of IVDD in vivo. a A flow diagram of the in vivo experiments. A total of 32 rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: normal control, non-injection with puncture group (non-injection), recombinant JAG2 injection with puncture group (JAG2), and lentiviral sh-Notch2 injection with puncture group (sh-Notch2). b MRIs of the indicated groups were obtained 0/3/9 weeks after needle puncture. L4/5 (yellow arrow) was punctured, and the others were left intact. c Intraoperative anatomical images: the red arrow points to the renal iliolumbar vein, and the blue arrow points to the L4/5 intervertebral disc, which is a little higher than the iliolumbar vein. d TUNEL staining of the IVDs in the indicated groups at 9 weeks after needle puncture. DAPI indicating total cells; green fluorescence indicating TUNEL-positive cells. Scale bar = 100 μm. e The MRI grade in the indicated groups at 9 weeks after needle puncture. The degree of disc degeneration according to MRI grade was significantly lower in the JAG2 group than in the non-injection group; *P < 0.05. f A significant decrease in the apoptosis rate was noted in the JAG2 group compared with that in the puncture group, and there was an increased apoptosis rate in sh-Notch2 group compared with that in the puncture group; *P < 0.05. g Western blot analysis of the expression of CDK6, cyclin D1, p21, apoptotic effector caspases (caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9), PI3K/Akt and Wnt/β-catenin signaling markers, catabolic enzymes (MMP-3, MMP-13, and Adamts-5), and extracellular matrix (ECM) components (collagen II, aggrecan) in the rat NP tissues. The injection of JAG2 alleviated the degenerative changes in the NP such as an enhanced apoptotic and catabolic response and reduced the expression of ECM components in the rat model of IVDD, while sh-Notch2 aggravated the degenerative changes in the NP. h Safranin O/fast green staining of the IVDs at 9 weeks after needle puncture showed signifcant IVDD in the sh-Notch2 group, while injection of JAG2 alleviated the degeneration of IVD