Long non-coding RNA zinc finger antisense 1 expression associates with increased disease risk, elevated disease severity and higher inflammatory cytokines levels in patients with lumbar disc degeneration

This study aimed to investigate the correlation of long noncoding RNA zinc finger antisense 1 (lncRNA ZFAS1) expression with disease risk, disease severity and inflammatory cytokines levels in lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) patients. 83 LDD patients underwent surgery and 28 traumatized, non-LDD patients underwent lumbar disc surgery (controls) were consecutively enrolled in this case-control study. Lumbar disc tissue was obtained during surgery and herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) was isolated to detect lncRNA ZFAS1 expression and inflammatory cytokines mRNA levels by RT-qPCR, and determine protein levels of inflammatory cytokines by western blot. HNP lncRNA ZFAS1 expression in LDD patients was up-regulated compared with controls (P < .001), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed lncRNA ZFAS1 expression disclosed a good predictive value for LDD risk with area under curve (AUC) 0.753 (95% CI 0.646–0.859). And after adjustment by age, gender and body mass index (BMI), lncRNA ZFAS1 (P = .017) remained to be an independent predictive factor for higher LDD risk. In addition, lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was positively associated with Modified Pfirrmann Grade (P = .015). As to inflammatory cytokines, lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was observed to be positively correlated with TNF-α (P = .002), IL-1β (P = .007) and IL-6 (P = .015) mRNAs expressions while reversely associated with IL-10 mRNA level (P = .014); and lncRNA ZFAS1 expression was also positively correlated with protein levels of TNF-α (P = .038) and IL-6 (P = .027) while reversely associated with IL-10 protein expression (P = .039). lncRNA ZFAS1 expression associates with increased risk, elevated disease severity and higher inflammatory cytokines levels in LDD patients.