title: Significant pathways response to osmotic stimuli in the intervertebral disc.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a special tissue localized in the middle of vertebrae and it often experiences osmotic environment to accommodate applied mechanical forces.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Here we aim to confirm significant pathways associated with IVD osmotic regulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two different pathway analyses which are named component-based approach and protein-protein interaction (PPI)-based approach are used to identify the significant pathways from the related databases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway was specifically identified based on traditional significant pathway analysis. New significant pathway analysis indicated that ErbB signaling pathway, nucleotide excision repair, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway, and alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism pathway, etc. were all associated with osmotic regulation. Importantly, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway was only significant in the hyper-osmotic dataset, however, alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism pathway in the hypo-osmotic dataset.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that IVD accommodation mechanism is important in response to osmotic stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Shanghai First People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: G Q
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Q H
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000502:physiology*; D009995:Osmosis / Q000502:physiology*; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps; D015398:Signal Transduction