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Biomedical subjects

J R Taylor

Publications and source records attributed to J R Taylor.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Prior exposure to cocaine diminishes behavioral and biochemical responses to aversive conditioning: reversal by glycine/N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist co-treatment.

Animals will respond with stress-like behavioral and biochemical changes when exposed to a neutral stimulus that had previously been paired with a stressful stimulus. This phenomenon is generally known as aversive conditioning or conditioned fear. We tested the effect of prior exposure to cocaine on rats subjected to an aversive conditioning paradigm. Rats were given repeated doses of cocaine to develop a reverse tolerance or sensitization to the locomotor stimulant properties of cocaine. We blocked this sensitization to cocaine in one cocaine-exposed group by co-administering an antagonist of the strychinine-insensitive glycine site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor complex, R-(+)-HA-966, which prevented the development of locomotor sensitization to cocaine. After about three weeks, we examined the effect of cocaine sensitization and the prevention of sensitization by R-(+)-HA-966 on aversive conditioning. Rats were exposed to 10 tones (neutral stimuli) paired with footshock (stressful stimuli) over 30 min for the conditioning session. The following day, rts were returned to the cages, received 10 tones only over 30 min and were killed. No drugs were given to any rat before either session and control rats received the tones without footshock in both sessions. Prior exposure to cocaine caused an attenuation of the behavioral effects of aversive conditioning, namely the amount of time spent immobilized and the number of fecal boli expelled. Additionally, the elevated metabolic activity of dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area associated with aversive conditioning was diminished in rats pre-exposed to cocaine. The behavioral and biochemical effects of pre-exposure to cocaine were reversed in rats that receive R-(+)-HA-966 co-treatment with the five day cocaine sensitization regimen. These data suggest that prior behavioral sensitization to cocaine diminishes the stressful effect of conditioned fear and that these effects are reversed when sensitization is prevented with R-(+)-HA-966.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Optical flow, spatial orientation, and the control of posture in the elderly.

Stabliographic techniques were used to better understand the role of the visual system in the perceptual motor activity of older people as it relates to the maintenance of postural control. The central research question was to determine the sensitivity of the subject's visual system to changes in three standard conditions of optical flow generated by an experimental moving room. Any movement that was present as a function of this optical flow field was recorded on a force platform and expressed in movement of a computed center-of-pressure variable. Movement of the center of pressure was recorded in a baseline condition and in the experimental conditions, and the data were analyzed with respect to differences in the three conditions of optical flow and between both younger and older subjects. The older subject group exhibited less stability than the younger subjects in response to the baseline conditions; and, after adjusting for baseline movement, the center-of-pressure motions of younger and older subjects, in response to the experimental conditions, were compared. No reliable differences were present between younger and older subjects for the radial optical flow condition; in the lamellar flow condition, older subjects moved significantly more than younger subjects; and, in the combined condition (global), the movement of the older subjects was significantly greater than that of the younger subjects for all motion variables recorded. The results are interpreted and discussed both in terms of their implication for falling in the elderly and in the context of an ecological interpretation of the role of vision in maintaining postural stability while both stationary and in motion.

Accidental Falls↗
PubMed1995

Suppressive and enhancing effects of ultraviolet B radiation on expression of contact hypersensitivity in man.

Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation has multiple effects on the immune system, and these effects contribute to the development of UVB-induced skin cancers in mice, and probably man. Depending upon dose and duration of UVB exposure, the resultant immune aberrations may be strictly local (at the irradiated skin site) or systemic. One important local effect of acute, low-dose UVB regimens is impaired induction of contact hypersensitivity (CH). Because a significant proportion of humans who develop CH when hapten is painted on UVB-exposed skin fall to display a primary allergic reaction at that site, we inquired into the effects of UVB radiation on the expression of CH in man. A high proportion of individuals who were first exposed to a sensitizing dose of hapten via UVB-exposed skin displayed CH when challenged on unirradiated (normal) skin 11 d later. However, only 50% of these subjects developed CH when challenged simultaneously on skin that had been exposed to UVB radiation 11 d previously. Because the density of epidermal antigen-presenting cells was comparable in both responders and non-responders, we interpret these findings to mean that UVB radiation can create a sustained immunosuppressive microenvironment that inhibits the expression of CH. In separate experiments, when normal volunteers were sensitized with hapten via unirradiated (normal) skin, expression of CH at UVB-exposed challenge sites 11 d later was found to be enhanced, at least in some individuals, compared to expression of CH at unirradiated challenge sites. Thus, the local effects of UVB radiation on expression of CH in man may be enhancing or inhibitory, depending upon whether initial sensitization occurred through normal or through UVB-exposed skin.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Voluntary transformation from an institutionally based to a community-based service system.

The transformation of a large, private, not-for-profit, church-affiliated provider of residential services from an institutionally based to community-based service system was described. Closure of a 200-person ICF/MR facility was discussed. Factors influencing the decision to close the institution as well as the guidelines used in effecting the transformation were described. Finally, data were presented indicating that consumer and staff satisfaction and judgments of program quality remained high during the period of transformation.

Consumer Behavior↗
PubMed1994

Novel radioligands for the dopamine transporter demonstrate the presence of intrastriatal nigral grafts in the MPTP-treated monkey: correlation with improved behavioral function.

This preliminary study demonstrates by in vitro autoradiography the value of novel radiolabeled cocaine analogs to characterize the neurochemical identity and measure the density and growth of fetal ventral mesencephalic cells transplanted to the caudate nucleus of the adult MPTP-treated monkey. Two cocaine derivatives were used, one with extremely high affinity for both dopamine and serotonin transporters and one which was selective for the dopamine transporter. The results suggest that the transplantation procedure was able to increase the density of transporter sites in most of the caudate nucleus, although the proportion of dopaminergic and serotonergic fibers may have been altered from normal.

1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine↗
PubMed1994

Increase in epsilon(gamma-glutamyl)lysine crosslinks in atherosclerotic aortas.

Portions of aortas from normal and atherosclerotic rabbits and from human autopsy subjects were washed and separated into layers which were subjected to exhaustive proteolytic digestion. The digests were assayed for epsilon(gamma-glutamyl)lysine crosslinks by a two-stage high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedure. Crosslink concentrations in intima-media from rabbits where more than 15% of the aorta lumen surface was lesioned are greater than in normal aortas or aortas with less than 15% of the surface lesioned. Higher crosslink concentrations occur in fibrolipid plaques from human aortas than in intima-media layers of equal thickness from non-lesioned areas of the same aortas. Much of the crosslink in fibrolipid plaques occurs in the proteins which float at d < 1.18 g/ml. Non-lesioned areas of intima-media from aortas with fatty streaks or plaques have higher crosslink concentrations than intima-media from aortas with no lesions. In normal and lesioned intimas thinner than 0.2 mm, the concentration of the crosslink is lower than in the subjacent media. These findings indicate that increased epsilon(gamma-glutamyl)lysine crosslinking occurs in the atherosclerotic aorta and is associated principally with smooth muscle cells. It is suggested that the crosslinked products may be involved in retention of lipoproteins and the increase in collagen production.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Immune surveillance and sunlight-induced skin cancer.

Immune surveillance poses the existence of a recirculating pool of lymphocytes that migrate randomly through somatic tissues. Upon recognition of neoantigens on malignantly transformed cells, lymphocytes proceed to attack and destroy degenerate cells before a tumor emerges. Here, J. Wayne Streilein and colleagues review the effects of ultraviolet B irradiation on the induction of cutaneous immunity in the skin of mice and humans. Furthermore, they discuss the possibility of a genetic predisposition to skin cancer, mediated by a defect in the normal process by which contact hypersensitivity, and therefore immunogenicity, is elicited.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Peripheral nerve-dopamine neuron co-grafts in MPTP-treated monkeys: augmentation of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive fiber staining and dopamine content in host systems.

Previous studies of rats in our laboratory indicate that a molecule or molecules released by Schwann cells exert survival and growth-promoting effects on mesencephalic dopamine neurons. In the present study, we have begun to investigate the potential for Schwann cell augmentation of host dopamine fiber systems and embryonic dopamine neuron grafts in non-human primates. Ten adult male St Kitts African Green monkeys treated with the dopaminergic neurotoxin 1-methyl 4-phenyl 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine one year previously, but behaviorally asymptomatic, served as hosts for implant studies. A segment of young adult monkey saphenous nerve was collected to serve as an implanted tissue source of Schwann cell-derived growth factors. Nerve was enclosed in a hollow semi-permeable polymer fiber for implantation into the lateral ventricle, with embryonic ventral mesencephalic tissue co-grafts containing developing dopamine neurons aimed at nearby locations in the caudate nucleus. Control implants consisted of an empty polymer fiber co-grafted with embryonic ventral mesencephalon. Our morphological observations indicate that while no clear augmentation of the morphology of grafted dopamine neurons attributable to co-grafted nerve was observed, this lack of influence may be related to the spatial separation of the co-grafted tissues. In contrast, some monkeys with nerve segments in the lateral ventricle exhibited increased tyrosine hydroxylase-positive fiber staining in the immediately adjacent lateral septal area and the ventricular wall of the caudate nucleus. This enhancement was not associated with empty polymer implants. Levels of dopamine and its metabolite homovanillic acid derived from tissue punches in the caudate nucleus and septal area support the view that monkeys exhibiting morphological enhancement of host dopamine systems also show biochemical increases in dopamine levels and changes in the direction of normalization of the homovanillic acid/dopamine ratio. Biochemical values from a single septal area tissue punch in one animal were an exception to this rule. This study suggests that while the utility of peripheral nerve as a source of dopamine graft augmentation in non-human primates remains to be demonstrated, grafted nerve has a stimulatory effect on host brain dopamine systems in adult, dopamine-depleted monkeys, and that this morphological effect can be dissociated from previously hypothesized injury-induced regeneration.

1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine↗
PubMed1994

Interrelationship between ultraviolet light and recurrent herpes simplex infections in man.

In humans, epicutaneous application of a universally sensitizing dose (2000 micrograms) of dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) to skin exposed to 4 consecutive daily doses (144 mJ/cm2) of ultraviolet-B radiation (UVB) induces contact hypersensitivity (CH) in approximately 56% of normal, adult individuals (UVB-resistant--UVB-R), but not in the remaining 44% (UVB-susceptible--UVB-S). In patients with biopsy proven basal/squamous cell cancer, the frequency of the UVB-S trait exceeds 90%, indicating that this phenotype may be a risk factor for sunlight-induced skin cancer. Since many patients with recurrent herpes labialis complain that lip lesions are precipitated by acute sun exposure, we wondered whether the UVB-S trait might be associated with this recurrent disease. A group of 31 volunteers was selected, each with a history of numerous episodes of labialis secondary to reactivated herpes simplex virus-1 infection. Subjects were questioned carefully concerning factors, including sun exposure, thought to be important in precipitating lip lesions. Each individual was then subjected to the UVB plus DNCB protocol. When forearm skin of these individuals was assayed for CH after 30 days, 20 (65%) proved to be UVB-S (approximately 1.5 times the expected frequency), while the remainder displayed vigorous DNCB-specific CH. A strong history of sun-induced recurrent herpes simplex labialis did not predict the UVB phenotype. A subset of these subjects was exposed to 2 MEDs of UVB to their faces. None of the UVB-R subjects developed recurrent herpes labialis while 6 of 8 UVB-S subjects developed recurrent lesions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Preexposure to, but not cotreatment with, the neurotensin antagonist SR 48692 delays the development of cocaine sensitization.

This study examined the role of neurotensin (NT) in the development of cocaine sensitization using the novel nonpeptide NT antagonist SR 48692. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received five daily administrations of SR 48692 (80 micrograms/kg, IP or PO) or vehicle. Following a 7 day drug-free period, cocaine-induced (15 mg/kg, IP) locomotor activity was assessed. Subsequent cocaine tests occurred every other day. No differences were observed between groups during the first day of cocaine testing. Sensitization to the locomotor activating effects of cocaine occurred rapidly in the controls reaching peak effects by the third cocaine challenge injection. By contrast, subjects preexposed to SR 48692 IP were delayed in the development of cocaine sensitization maintaining significantly lower cocaine-induced activity counts relative to controls until the sixth cocaine challenge injection. Preexposure to SR 48692 PO also produced an attenuating effect on the development of cocaine sensitization. The decreased cocaine-induced activity in SR 48692-preexposed subjects did not appear to be the result of a locomotor deficit as SR 48692-preexposed subjects exhibited increased activity rates following a high dose (30 mg/kg, IP) cocaine challenge injection. In an additional experiment, the effect of cotreatment with SR 48692 on the development of cocaine sensitization was assessed. Subjects were cotreated with SR 48692 (80 micrograms/kg, IP) or vehicle 60 minutes prior to each of two cocaine (15 mg/kg, IP) or saline preexposure injections. Following a drug-free day, subjects were tested for cocaine-induced (15 mg/kg, IP) locomotor activation. SR 48692 cotreatment had no effect on the development of sensitization to cocaine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Accuracy of statistical methods in TRANSFUSION: a review of articles from July/August 1992 through June 1993.

BACKGROUND: Statistical errors have been noted in a large percentage of articles appearing in medical journals. Their incidence in a blood banking journal, however, has not been studied. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Original articles appearing in the journal TRANSFUSION from July 1992 through June 1993 were analyzed for correctness of statistical methods. Each article was reviewed by both a transfusion medicine physician and a statistician. RESULTS: There were 122 original articles, of which 59 contained statistical methods and were reviewed. Of these, 23 (39%) contained an error in the statistical description of their data, 47 (80%) failed to describe clearly the statistical tests performed, and 44 (75%) involved an incorrect statistical test or contained an error in test calculation or interpretation. As a result of these errors, 13 (22%) of the 55 articles analyzed reported conclusions not supported by the data. CONCLUSION: Misuse of statistical methodology may not be uncommon in transfusion medicine research, and it would be prudent to give more attention to statistical methodology in such research.

Blood Transfusion↗
PubMed1994

Relationship between ultraviolet radiation-induced immunosuppression and carcinogenesis.

The capacity of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation to damage the cutaneous immune system has been extensively documented, and there is good reason to believe that UVB-induced damage is a critical, albeit permissive, factor in the development of sunlight-induced skin cancers. A summary of the evidence shows that acute, low-dose UVB protocols, which resemble quantitatively and qualitatively the manner in which human beings typically experience sun exposure, alter the cutaneous immune system in at least two important ways: they impair the induction of contact hypersensitivity to cutaneous antigens, and induce antigen-specific tolerance. In mice there is compelling evidence that immunogenetic factors dictate whether UVB radiation will impair contact hypersensitivity induction or not. The genetic loci that contain the relevant polymorphic alleles include tumor necrosis factor-alpha and lipopolysaccharide. Because the effects of UVB radiation on contact hypersensitivity induction are mimicked by intracutaneous injections of subinflammatory doses of tumor necrosis factor-alpha or cis-urocanic acid, the favored hypothesis to explain the mechanism of action of UVB radiation in UVB-susceptible individuals is that UVB-dependent transformation of trans- to cis-urocanic acid in the epidermis triggers the intracutaneous release of excess amounts of tumor necrosis factor-alpha. By transiently immobilizing Langerhans cells and other local antigen-presenting cells within the skin, the requirement that hapten be brought to the draining lymph node to sensitive naive hapten-specific T cells is not met, and contact hypersensitivity fails to develop. Because the UVB-susceptibility and UVB-resistance traits have also been demonstrated in human beings, the hypothesis is advanced that these traits are similarly under control of immunogenetic factors, and that a constellation of immune susceptibility genes contributes to the risk of developing sunlight-induced skin cancer. The cellular and molecular basis of UVB-induced tolerance is not as well described, but current evidence suggests that different mechanisms, and presumably different polymorphic genes, dictate whether tolerance will emerge after UVB exposure in mice. Because acute, low-dose UVB also induces tolerance in human beings, the immunogenetic factors that dictate tolerance of this type may also contribute to the risk of developing sunlight-induced skin cancer.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

The chemical morphology of age-related changes in human intervertebral disc glycosaminoglycans from cervical, thoracic and lumbar nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus.

Hyaluronan (HA), chondroitin and keratan sulphates (CS, KS), collagen and dry weights were measured in the annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus of human cervical, thoracic and lumbar intervertebral discs aged 36-79 y. Alcian blue-critical electrolyte concentration (CEC) staining of sections extended the results. The collagen, total polyanion, HA, CS and KS contents of the nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus were plotted for all 3 regions against age. Regional differences and age-related trends were found. For regional differences, the collagen content of the nucleus pulposus was highest in cervical discs and lowest in lumbar discs. In contrast, the total polyanion content of the nucleus pulposus was highest in lumbar discs and lowest in cervical discs. These differences were seen in fetal and adult discs. With respect to age-related trends, the collagen content of the annulus fibrosus was higher in adults and children than in neonates and infants. The collagen content of the nucleus pulposus increased with age in thoracic and lumbar discs, but it was consistently high in cervical discs. There was generally a downward trend of total polyanion and CS with increase in age. This was quite consistent for the annulus fibrosus in all regions and there were dramatic decreases in the lumbar nucleus pulposus in all adults compared with infants and children. These trends were least evident in the cervical nucleus pulposus where infant values were low. CS changes correlated with water content. HA and KS increased in all discs with increasing maturity. Oversulphated KS, absent from fetal discs, reached mature levels by 10 y. Many of the changes occurred before maturity. Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) levels correlated with increasing compressive loads. Higher collagen levels in the cervical nucleus pulposus correlated with greater ranges of torsional and shearing strains in cervical discs. High GAG levels in cervical annulus fibrosus probably facilitate lamellar movements during torsional and flexional movements by lubrication and increase of tissue compressibility. Increased KS/CS ratios before maturity correlated with decreased disc blood supply. Ambient O2 tensions may determine KS/CS balance, the former consuming little O2 during biosynthesis.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Neural transplantation for neurodegenerative diseases: past, present, and future.

After almost 100 years of sporadic, and marginally successful, studies of neural transplantation in animals, we are now on the threshold of a clinical treatment of the damaged brain. The initial studies of neural transplantation have focused on Parkinson's disease, primarily as a model for a more general strategy of "repair by cellular replacement." Parkinson's is known to result from the loss of a small population of cells that produce the essential neuromodulator, dopamine, for much of the brain. Further, the disease is improved significantly, during the early part of its course, by chemical augmentation of dopamine activity through drug therapies, such as L-dopa. Finally, the disease is often fatal in spite of the best medical treatments, therefore justifying more radical therapeutic experiments. If transplantation of brain cells can be accomplished successfully in humans, as it has been in animals, then replacement of a small population of dopamine-producing cells in Parkinson's disease should have important functional effects and possibly reverse the course and symptoms of the disease. Other useful applications will surely follow for conditions affecting millions of people for whom medicine now has only palliative and ineffective treatments. Just as Parkinson's disease is a model clinical condition for testing cellular replacements, fetal neural tissue transplants are also a first step for a broader strategy of molecular and cellular therapies. Fetal cells are, in many respects, the best replacements one could imagine, since precursor cells have the capacity to develop into every cell found in the adult. So, the best replacement for a dopamine neuron would likely be a precursor dopamine neuron or "neuroblast." Animal research through 1985 had demonstrated the unique properties of such fetal cells, but survivability after transplantation had not been attained with primate or human neural tissue. Our programs developed techniques to transplant monkey fetal neural tissue, to cryopreserve it, and to reverse functional effects of the neurotoxin, MPTP, in monkeys. This technique was applied to the collection and preservation of human tissue, and preliminary successful results have been obtained in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Others have reported success with different techniques in two MPTP-Parkinsonian patients and a small number of patients with idiopathic disease. If the most dramatic improvements can be replicated consistently and the benefits last for a reasonable period without complications, a clinical treatment might develop using "random-source" fetal cadaver cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Fetal dopamine cell survival after transplantation is dramatically improved at a critical donor gestational age in nonhuman primates.

Mesencephalic tissue containing newly generated dopamine neurons was collected from brains of embryonic African green monkeys at 44 and 49 days of gestation and stereotaxically implanted into multiple sites in the caudate nucleus of adult monkeys previously treated with the dopamine protoxin, 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrathydropyridine. Ultrasonography was utilized to assess the developmental stage prior to hysterotomy. Brains were removed for combined histochemical and biochemical analyses at 3 1/2 months after grafting to determine the extent of graft survival and growth. The dopamine content of the target nucleus was assessed from microdissected "punches" placed in proximity to grafts identified in unfixed brain slices prior to fixation. Tissue dopamine levels adjacent to the grafts were elevated markedly, reaching 25-50% of control levels at some sites in the caudate nucleus. Morphometric analysis of graft size and dopamine cell numbers was performed with computer-enhanced, video-based imaging. Exceptionally large grafts that far exceeded their initial size at the time of implantation were seen at each placement site. The dopamine cell count was as high as 3500 in a single graft from E44 tissue, but only as high as 550 from the E49 donor. Up to 15,000 tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons were stained in the host monkey that received E44 tissue; only 1/10 as many were seen in each of the recipients of E49 day samples. The earlier donor grafts occupied as much as 15% of the caudate nucleus as seen in a single coronal section; summation of all sections that contained grafts at each placement from the E44 donor revealed average areas occupied by the grafts ranging from 3 to 8% of the caudate nucleus. In comparison, grafts produced from an E49 donor averaged between 2.4 and 5.4% of the area of the target. Qualitatively, grafts from each gestational stage showed well-developed dopamine neurons with morphological characteristics equivalent to those of all three ventral mesencephalic dopamine cell groups. The attainment of large, well-differentiated grafts with thousands of dopaminergic neurons from early gestation tissue suggests that optimal cell survival in primates is dependent on the degree of postgerminal development of the dopamine neuron. Neurite extension may be critical in this regard as well as other, at present, undefined factors. Maximal graft development and cell survival may be a critical element in the ability of neural grafts to reverse a neurological disability and to maintain improvement in the event of continued degeneration of host dopamine neurons.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Cocaine-sensitive and -insensitive dopamine uptake in prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and striatum.

Behavioral studies have indicated that the reinforcing effects of cocaine are dependent on inhibition of dopamine uptake in nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. As it has been suggested that dopamine uptake and cocaine-inhibition of dopamine uptake may differ in nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex and striatum, we have further characterized dopamine uptake and its susceptibility to inhibition in these three regions. Dopamine uptake was resolved into two processes, which accounts for some of the apparent reported regional differences in sensitivity of dopamine to inhibition by cocaine. One, which is probably associated with uptake into dopaminergic terminals, was sensitive to 6-hydroxydopamine lesions, cocaine, GBR 12909 or ouabain and was dependent on temperature and sodium ion concentration; this was responsible for most of the observed uptake in tissue from striatum and nucleus accumbens, but not from prefrontal cortex. There appeared to be no regional difference in susceptibility of this mode of dopamine uptake to either cocaine or GBR 12909. The other type of dopamine uptake, which represented a significant proportion of the total in prefrontal cortex, but not in striatum or nucleus accumbens, was relatively insensitive to cocaine, GBR 12909 and ouabain and was dependent on temperature, but not sodium ion concentration. In addition, the cocaine-insensitive dopamine uptake was more sensitive to inhibition by dopamine than serotonin, but did not distinguish between dopamine and norepinephrine. The occurrence of cocaine-sensitive dopamine uptake in all examined regions and its equal sensitivity to cocaine and GBR 12909 is consistent with the involvement of nucleus accumbens and/or prefrontal cortex in the reinforcing effects of cocaine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1993

Acute injuries to cervical joints. An autopsy study of neck sprain.

A comparative study of cervical spines from 16 subjects who died of major trauma and 16 control subjects who died of natural causes, showed clefts in the cartilage plates of the intervertebral discs in 15 of 16 spines from the trauma victims. These were quite distinct from the uncovertebral clefts and central disc fissures that are a normal feature of aging in cervical discs. Posterior disc herniation through a damaged anulus fibrosus and hemarthrosis in facet joints were also observed. No directly comparable lesions were found in the control subjects, but two discs in this group showed "rim lesions," which may be old injuries. Disc lesions are common in injured cervical spines where translation is much greater than in the lumbar spine and these lesions are slow to heal. It is suggested that such injuries could cause the pain experienced by patients with neck sprain.

Accidents, Traffic↗