Figure 2

Static compression induces matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) activation. Immunohistochemical staining using an antibody (CA719E3C; Labvision, Fremont, CA, USA) that recognizes only the latent MMP-2 zymogen in nonloaded (left) and loaded (right) IVDs. These data are unpublished, but presented in a poster [15]. The loss of positive staining from cells of loaded discs coincided with previously observed increases in activation of MMP-2, as determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [10].