Figure 1

HCG18 is up-regulated in IDD patients. (A) Alignment of miR-146a-5p sequence with HCG18 and with HCG18 mutated at the putative binding site (37–43 region of HCG18, AGTTCTC). (B) The correlation between HCG18 level and miR-146a-5p expression was measured in NP tissues from the patients with bulging and herniated discs (n = 60). Spearman’s correlation coefficient r = 0.4796, P = 0.0006. (C) Luciferase reporter activity in NP cell was detected after co-transfection miR-con/miR-146a-5p mimics (25 nM) and luciferase vector (pmiR-GLo) containing the wild type/mutant HCG18 (100 ng/L). (D) HCG18 expression was measured by qPCR from control, bulging and herniated NP tissues (n = 90). (E) The relative expression of HCG18 in NP tissue from IDD patients and controls (n = 90). (F) The correlation between the expression of HCG18 and patients’ pfirrmann score (n = 60). Spearman’s correlation coefficient r = 0.7245, P = 0.0001. *P < 0.05.