Fig. 1.

Mechanism of circRNA-CIDN in compression induced IDD. CircRNA-CIDN may serve as a sponge of miRNA-34a-5p to suppress its binding to the mRNA of SIRT1, which in turn promote mRNA stabilization and protein translation of SIRT1; while SIRT1 is responsible for the extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis and apoptosis suppression in nucleus pulposus cells. Pathological compression may lead to decreased expression of circRNA-CIDN and suppress ECM homeostasis and promote apoptosis through miRNA-34a-5p/SIRT1.