• Youfeng Guo, Chao Li, Beiduo Shen, Xianzhen Chen, Tao Hu, and Desheng Wu.
• Department of Spine Surgery, Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
• Eur Spine J. 2022 Nov 1; 31 (11): 295029592950-2959.

ObjectiveFerritin autophagy is characterized by intracellular ferroptosis and selective ferritin degradation. However, the role of ferritin in the development of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) has not been elucidated. The study aimed to investigate the role of serum iron metabolism markers, especially serum ferritin (SF), in IDD.Methods217 patients who came to the spine surgery department of our hospital for low back pain were recruited, and blood samples were collected for routine examination after admission. The cumulative grade was also calculated by summing up the Pfirrmann grade of all lumbar discs.ResultsCorrelation analysis showed that cumulative grade was correlated with SF (r = - 0.185, p = 0.006), not with serum iron (SI), transferrin saturation (TS), unsaturated iron-binding capacity (UIBC) and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) (all p > 0.05). In addition, SF levels in the low severity IDD were significantly higher than high severity IDD in cumulative grade (p = 0.003) and single disc grade. No statistically significant difference was found in the other four indicators. A statistically significant difference was observed between the high (cumulative grade > 17) and low score (cumulative grade ≤ 17) groups in terms of age. According to the ROC curve, the cut-off value of SF levels was 170.5. Patients with SF < 170.5 ng/mL had severe disc degeneration. The sensitivity and specificity were 0.635 and 0.602, respectively.ConclusionThis study preliminarily showed that SF was negatively correlated with the degree of IDD and can be used to predict IDD severity.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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