Figure 1.

Comparison of endogenous gene expression by cells from normal and degenerative human intervertebral disc. Fresh human nucleus pulposus tissue from normal (grades 0 to 2) and degenerative (after surgery) intervertebral disc cells were subjected to total RNA preparation followed by semiquantitative RT-PCR using human specific primer sets. Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as the internal control. FGF2, fibroblast growth factor 2; FGFR, fibroblast growth factor receptor.