The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of diabetes mellitus (DM) on radiculopathy due to lumbar disc herniation (LDH), by investigating pain-related behavior and the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and growth-associated protein 43 (GAP43) in type 2 diabetic rats following application of nucleus pulposus (NP) to the dorsal root ganglion (DRG).
By contrast, upregulation of interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) expression was observed in patients with LDH, according to an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.