Figure 1.

Schematic overview of region of interest (ROI) subdivision of the intervertebral disc. The ROIs at the anterior and posterior edges (ROI 1 and ROI 6) were interpreted as annulus fibrosus (AF) tissue (green squares). Regions 2 and 5 were seen as intermediate transition zone between AF and nucleus pulposus (orange squares). In between these most anterior and posterior regions, ROIs 3 and 4 were defined as definite nucleus pulposus tissue (red squares) (For interpretation of the references to colours in this figure legend, refer to the online version of this article).