The Relationship between Diabetes Mellitus Type II and Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Diabetic Rodent Models: A Systematic and Comprehensive Review

The number of diabetic patients grows constantly worldwide. Many patients suffer simultaneously from diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and intervertebral disc disease (IVDD), suggesting a strong link between T2DM and IVDD. T2DM rodent models provide versatile tools to study this interrelation. We hypothesized that the previously achieved studies in rodents approved it. Performing a search in the publicly available electronic databases according to our inclusion (e.g., experimental study with clearly outlined methods investigating IVDD in diabetic rodent models) and exclusion (e.g., non-experimental) criteria, we included 23 studies from 1992 to 2020 analyzing different aspects of IVDD in diabetic rodents, such as on pathogenesis (e.g., effects of hyperglycemia on IVD cells, sirtuin (SIRT)1/p53 axis in the interrelation between T2DM and IVDD), risk factors (e.g., high content of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) in modern diets), therapeutical approaches (e.g., insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I)), and prophylaxis. Regarding their quality, 12 studies were classified as high, six as moderate, and five as low. One strong, 18 moderate, and three mild evidences of the link between DM and IVDD in rodents were found, while only one study has not approved this link. We concluded that T2DM has a devastating effect on IVD, particularly in advanced cases, which needs to be further evaluated.