Role of endplates in contributing to compression behaviors of motion segments and intervertebral discs

The purpose of this study was to gain an improved understanding of the mechanical behavior of the intervertebral disc in the presence and absence of the vertebral endplates. Mechanical behaviors of rat caudal motion segments, vertebrae and isolated disc explants under two different permeability conditions were investigated and viscoelastic behaviors were evaluated using a stretched-exponential function to describe creep and recovery behaviors. The results demonstrated that both vertebrae and discs underwent significant deformations in the motion segment even under relatively low-loading conditions. Secondly, disruption of the collagenous network had minimal impact on equilibrium deformations of disc explants as compared to disc deformations occurring in the motion segments provided that vertebral deformations were accounted for; however, differences in endplate permeability conditions had a significant effect on viscoelastic behaviors. Creep occurred more quickly than recovery for motion segment and explant specimens. In addition, disc explants and motion segments both exhibited non-recoverable deformations under axial compression under low- and high-loading conditions. Results have important implications for interpreting the role of vertebral endplates in contributing to disc mechanical behaviors and direct application to mechanobiology studies involving external loading to rodent tail intervertebral discs.