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Master thesis: Why do Modic Changes cause back pain?
This project investigates why more sensory nerve endings are found in Modic changes (MC), a painful and highly prevalent, yet poorly understood spinal pathology. In-vitro sprouting of sensory nerves will be quantified in co-culture with human bone marrow aspirates from human MC and control aspirates
Modic Changes are vertebral bone marrow lesions adjacent to degenerated intervertebral discs and associate with back pain. Despite the high prevalence of Modic changes, there is no targeted treatment for Modic changes because the pathobiology is largely unknown. It is known that the bone marrow of Modic changes contains more sensory nerve endings. We need to understand why there are more sensory nerves in Modic changes in order to develop pain effective treatments for Modic Changes. The project is in close collaboration with the Department of spine surgery at Balgrist University Hospital.
Modic Changes are vertebral bone marrow lesions adjacent to degenerated intervertebral discs and associate with back pain. Despite the high prevalence of Modic changes, there is no targeted treatment for Modic changes because the pathobiology is largely unknown. It is known that the bone marrow of Modic changes contains more sensory nerve endings. We need to understand why there are more sensory nerves in Modic changes in order to develop pain effective treatments for Modic Changes. The project is in close collaboration with the Department of spine surgery at Balgrist University Hospital.
Our goal is to understand why there are more sensory nerve endings in Modic changes. We will investigate this with in-vitro co-culture of nerve fibers with bone marrow aspirates or stromal cells from Modic changes and healthy control bone marrow. Nerve sprouting will be quantified microscopically and quantified with image analysis tools. Sprouting efficiency will be correlated to bone marrow proteome (bone marrow proteome will be analyzed in parallel).
Tasks: 60% lab work, 20% method development, 20% documentation
Our goal is to understand why there are more sensory nerve endings in Modic changes. We will investigate this with in-vitro co-culture of nerve fibers with bone marrow aspirates or stromal cells from Modic changes and healthy control bone marrow. Nerve sprouting will be quantified microscopically and quantified with image analysis tools. Sprouting efficiency will be correlated to bone marrow proteome (bone marrow proteome will be analyzed in parallel).
University Hospital Zurich, Center for Experimental Rheumatology, Balgrist Campus, Stefan Dudli: stefan.dudli@usz.ch, +41 44 510 75 13, Oliver Distler: oliver.distler@usz.ch
University Hospital Zurich, Center for Experimental Rheumatology, Balgrist Campus, Stefan Dudli: stefan.dudli@usz.ch, +41 44 510 75 13, Oliver Distler: oliver.distler@usz.ch