{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T00:02:22Z","timestamp":1773878542290,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773792000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["82272524"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["82272524"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"High-Level Public Health Technology Talent Construction Project of Beijing","award":["Leading Talent-02-05"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Leading Talent-02-05"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biomolecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Cervical Intervertebral Disc Degeneration (CIVDD) involves significant microenvironmental physical stiffening, forcing nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) into a rigid phenotype via F-actin over-assembly. It remains unclear if cyclic tensile strain (CTS) can reverse this physical stiffening, particularly in severe degeneration. This study stratified 18 patients into Mild, Moderate, and Severe cohorts based on MRI. Primary NPCs were subjected to physiological 5% CTS (1 Hz, 24 h). Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and immunofluorescence were utilized to evaluate Young\u2019s modulus and cytoskeletal remodeling. Results demonstrated that baseline cellular stiffness increased significantly with degeneration severity. Following CTS, all groups exhibited universal de-stiffening and F-actin depolymerization. Crucially, a \u201cDegeneration Paradox\u201d emerged: the Severe group displayed the highest relative elastic modulus recovery rate, significantly surpassing the Mild group. This microscopic recovery correlated inversely with preoperative disc height loss and range of motion. We conclude that severely degenerated cells are not metabolically quiescent but \u201cphysically locked\u201d by a rigid cytoskeleton. Physiological CTS restores compliance via mechanical unloading, confirming that severe cells retain superior relative mechanoplasticity and may benefit from mechanotherapy-based \u201cunlocking\u201d strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biom16030461","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T17:12:26Z","timestamp":1773853946000},"page":"461","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Degeneration Paradox: Severely Degenerated Cervical Nucleus Pulposus Cells Display Enhanced Mechanoplasticity Under Moderate Cyclic Tensile Strain"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Yuwen","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bowei","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Baining","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Juying","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"},{"name":"School of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"},{"name":"School of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Binxuan","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tianhua","family":"Rong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2156-0870","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Baoge","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Fundamental Research on Biomechanics in Clinical Application, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1204","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)30925-9","article-title":"Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990\u20132019: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019","volume":"396","author":"Diseases","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"213","DOI":"10.21037\/atm-22-91","article-title":"Mechanism of protective role of miR-874-3p in intervertebral disc 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