Injuries to the spinal cord may be associated with increased healing of fractures. This can be of benefit, but excessive bone growth can also cause considerable adverse effects.

We evaluated two groups of patients with fractures of the spinal column, those with neurological compromise (n = 10) and those without (n = 15), and also a control group with an isolated fracture of a long bone (n = 12). The level of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), was measured at five time points after injury (days 1, 5, 10, 42 and 84).

The peak level of 142.79 ng/ml was found at day 84 in the neurology group (p < 0.001 vs other time points). The other groups peaked at day 42 and had a decrease at day 84 after injury (p ≤ 0.001).

Our findings suggest that TGF-β may have a role in the increased bone turnover and attendant complications seen in patients with acute injuries to the spinal cord.

Herniated intervertebral disc tissue has been shown to produce a number of proinflammatory mediators and cytokines, but there have been no similar studies using discs from patients with discogenic low back pain.

We have compared the levels of production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) in disc tissue from patients undergoing discectomy for sciatica (63) with that from patients undergoing fusion for discogenic low back pain (20) using an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay.

There was a statistically significant difference between levels of production of IL-6 and IL-8 in the sciatica and low back pain groups (p < 0.006 and p < 0.003, respectively).

The high levels of proinflammatory mediator found in disc tissue from patients undergoing fusion suggest that production of proinflammatory mediators within the nucleus pulposus may be a major factor in the genesis of a painful lumbar disc.