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Intervertebral disc spheroids as an in vitro multicellular platform for recapitulating the microenvironment of intervertebral disc degeneration

GSE278813 Homo sapiens (human) RNA-seq (gene expression) 3 samples Submitted 2025/12/25 Platform GPL21697
At a glance

RNA-seq (gene expression) · human · 3 samples

What it is
RNA-seq (gene expression)Gene activity measured by sequencing. The summary does not mention single-cell work, so this is most likely bulk: one average per sample, the usual starting point for comparing groups.
Organism
Homo sapiens (human)
Samples
3 samples
Data you can get
A processed table (series matrix) and supplementary files from NCBI; the raw sequencing reads from ENA. Which of these hold counts depends on the study, so check the file list.
Summary (written by the submitters)
Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (IVDD) is a major contributor to chronic low back pain (LBP), representing a significant burden on the spinal healthcare system and a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide. Reliable in vitro models are lacking and thus monocultures of cell lines and 2D-based culture models are still used to study the patho-mechanisms of IVDD.
Read the full summary ↓
We established functional multicellular IVD spheroid cultures using primary human annulus fibrosus (AF), nucleus pulposus and microglial cells. The IVD spheroid culture was observed to facilitate the IVD-specific phenotype and function. The spheroid culture markedly increased the expression of inflammatory mediators and chemokines in the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1b, a master regulator of IVDD. Furthermore, we implemented our microfluidic chemotaxis platform to investigate microglial neuroinflammation in response to our reconstituted IVD spheroid models. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that microglia stimulated by potential contributing factors derived from IVDD spheroids exhibited a significant upregulation of chemotactic factors and cytokines including CCL2, 3, 4, 5, CXCL8, IL6, and IL1b (p < 0.05). Moreover, we observed considerable activation and infiltration of microglia induced by soluble factors derived from IVDD spheroids, which is expected to occur during IVDD. The chemotactic effects on microglia were reduced upon neutralization of CCL-2, IL-8 or inhibition of NF-kB signaling. These robust in vitro IVD spheroids can be used to model IVDD and provide a valuable platform for the assessment and development of IVDD therapeutics.
This dataset
Download · which file do I need?

Direct links to NCBI and ENA, no account and no request form. Pick by what you want to do: take the small processed table to look, the supplementary files to re-analyse, or the original raw data to start over.

1 · Just have a look

Processed table

The series matrix: one table of values per sample as the submitters processed it. The smallest download, and it opens in Excel or R. Start here to see what the data look like.

2 · Re-analyse it

Supplementary files

The count tables and other files the authors uploaded. Take only the samples you need, or the whole study as GSE278813_RAW.tar (it can run to tens of gigabytes).

3 · Start from the raw reads

Raw sequencing reads

The original FASTQ files, straight from the sequencer, held at ENA. Large, and you align them yourself, so only choose this if you need to re-process the study from scratch.

What the files usually look like: For RNA-seq the counts are usually a table among the supplementary files (look for 'counts', 'expression', 'FPKM' or 'TPM' in the file name). The series matrix of a sequencing study is sometimes nearly empty.

Also filed as BioProject PRJNA1168966 and SRA study SRP536644. Searching any of these in the dataset finder brings you back here.

Samples in this study

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