Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jan 18, 2025; 16(1): 102119
Published online Jan 18, 2025. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i1.102119
Fundamentals of intervertebral disc degeneration and related discogenic pain
Bao-Gan Peng
Bao-Gan Peng, Department of Orthopedics, The Third Medical Center, General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing 100039, China
Author contributions: Peng BG analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author reports no relevant conflicts of interest related to this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bao-Gan Peng, MD, PhD, Chief Physician, Professor, Department of Orthopedics, The Third Medical Center, General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, No. 69 Yongding Road, Beijing 100039, China. pengbaogan@163.com
Received: October 9, 2024
Revised: December 12, 2024
Accepted: December 19, 2024
Published online: January 18, 2025
Processing time: 96 Days and 0.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Animal models, as well as histological and biomechanical studies, have shown that annular tear or endplate injury is the initiating factor for painful disc degeneration. Neurogenic inflammation of the disc involves the release of neuropeptides such as substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide from nociceptive nerves that innervate the disc in response to disc injury, leading to progressive disc degeneration and discogenic pain.