ADAM-TS	A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs
AF	Annulus fibrosus
AFCs	Annulus fibrosis cells
AGE	Advanced glycation end-products
AI	Apoptotic index
ALA	5-Aminolevulinic acid
ALSL	Anterior longitudinal spinal ligament
Atg3	Autophagy related 3
Bax	Bcl-2 associated protein X
BB	Biobreeding
Bcl-2	B-cell lymphoma 2
BKS	black Kaliss‘s mice
BMD	Bone mass density
BSA	Bovine serum albumin
CEPCs	Cartilage endplate cells
CML	Ne-carboxymethyl lysine
CT	Computer tomography
Db/db rats	diabetic rats
DHI	Disc height index
DM	Diabetes mellitus
DMTII	Diabetes mellitus type II
DRG	Dorsal root ganglion
EAS	Evidence assessment system
ECM	Extracellular matrix
EMBASE	Excerpta Medica dataBASE
EP	Endplate
ERK	Extracellular signal-regulated kinase
FCD	Fixed charge density
GAG	Glycosaminoglycan
GAP43	Growth-associated protein 43
GK	Goto-Kakizaki
H2DCF-DA	2′,7′-Dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate
Iba1	Ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1
IGF-1	Insulin-like growth factor-1
IGF-1R	Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor
IDDM	Insulin-dependent diabetes
IVD	Intervertebral disc
IVDD	Intervertebral disc degeneration
IVDR	Intervertebral disc regeneration mellitus
LBP	Low back pain
LCMV	Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus
LC3	Microtubule-associated protein light chain 3
LDH	Lumbar disc herniation
LETO	Long–Evans Tokushima Otsuka
LETL	Long–Evans Tokushima lean leprdb leptin receptor-deficient diabetic
LSD	Lysergic acid diethylamide
LSL	Longitudinal spinal ligament
MALAT1	Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1
MAP	Mitogen activated protein kinase
MG	Methylglyoxal
MMP	Matrix-metalloproteinase
MnSOD	Manganese superoxide dismutase
MVD	Microvascular density
µCT	Microcomputed tomography
NOD	Non-obese diabetic mouse
NOS	Newcastle-Ottawa scale
NP	Nucleus pulposus
NPCs	Nucleus pulposus cells
NZO	New Zealand obese
OLETF	Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima fatty
OSD	Obese Sprague Dawley
PCR	Polymerase chain reaction
PLSL	Posterior longitudinal spinal ligament
PI	Propidium iodide
PRISMA	Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses
p38MAPK	p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases
pRB	Retinoblastoma protein
QA	Quality assessment
RAGE	Receptor for advanced glycation end-products
RF	Risk factor
ROP-Os	Radiation-induced oligosyndactyly mice
ROS	Reactive oxygen species
RQ	Research quality
SSS	Study scoring system
SA-β-Gal	Senescence-associated beta-galactosidase
SD	Sprague Dawley rats
SDT	Spontaneously diabetic Torii
SHG	Second-harmonic generation
SHROB	Spontaneous hypertensive obese rat
SIRT	Sirtuin
SOX9	Sex-determining region SRY of the Y chromosome
SSS	Study scoring system
STZ	Streptozotocin
T2DM	Diabetes mellitus type II
TEM	Transmission electron microscope
TIMP1	Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1
TNF-α	Tumor necrosis factor α
TUNEL	Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling
UCD-T2DM	University California Davis type 2 diabetes mellitus
WT mice	Wild type mice
ZDF	Zucker diabetic fatty (German)