A diagnostic signatures for intervertebral disc degeneration using TNFAIP6 and COL6A2 based on single-cell RNA-seq and bulk RNA-seq analyses

作者：Hongmei Song, Zuowei Li, Qin Huang, Chun-Gen Wu, Ming‐Hua Li, Junkang Shen · 发表于：Annals of Medicine · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1080/07853890.2024.2443568 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Spine and Intervertebral Disc Pathology、Medical Imaging and Analysis、Cervical and Thoracic Myelopathy

Objectives Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is a prevalent degenerative condition associated with a high incidence rate of low back pain and disability. This study aimed to identify potential biomarkers and signaling pathways associated with IVDD.Methods Biomarkers were discerned through bulk-RNA and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) investigations of IVDD cases from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Following this, two central genes were identified. Furthermore, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were conducted. The transcriptional factor (TF) derived from nucleus pulposus (NP) cells was examined through the DoRothEA R package. RT-qPCR and IHC techniques were employed to confirm the expression of the two hub genes and their associated genes in tissue samples.Results The proteins Tumor necrosis factor-inducible gene 6 protein (TNFAIP6) and collagen VI-α2 (COL6A2) were frequently analyzed using a combination of DEGs from datasets GSE70362, GSE124272, and scRNA-seq. Examination of gene expression across multiple datasets indicated significant differences in TNFAIP6 and COL6A2 levels in IVDD compared to control or normal groups (p < 0.05). These two central genes demonstrated strong diagnostic utility in the training cohort and reliable predictive value in the validation datasets. Our study verified the potential role of ZEB2 as a TF in regulating two key genes associated with IVDD. Furthermore, qP...