Figure 1.

LncRNA XIST is upregulated in IVDD patients in a Pfirrmann grade-dependent manner. (a), heatmap for differentially expressed lncRNAs between 10 IVD tissue samples from 5 IVDD patients and 5 non-IVDD patients using microarray analysis; (b), randomly selected 6 differentially expressed lncRNAs (MIR4435-2HG, lncRNA:iab8, ATXN8OS, CERNA2, NKILA and LINC00511) identified using RT-qPCR; (c), lncRNA XIST expression in 36 IVDD patients with different Pfirrmann grades (1–5) and 12 normal IVD controls (0) measured using RT-qPCR. Data were analyzed by the t test or one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test; * p < 0.05, compared to the IVD normal controls