Intervertebral disc degeneration-induced expression of pain-related molecules: glial cell-derived neurotropic factor as a key factor.

BackgroundDiscogenic low back pain has been shown to develop into chronic intractable pain due to an unknown pathogenesis. To study the mechanism of discogenic pain, we analyzed the serial expression of pain-related molecules in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and thalamus using a newly developed rat