Background Inflammatory markers play an important role in the pathophysiology of Lumbar disc herniation (LDH). This study presents a comprehensive multi-assessment of the inflammatory landscape by combining serum inflammatory cytokines quantification, their diagnostic performance, associations with radiological features, and integrating the experimental findings into an in-silico protein–protein interaction network.

Methods A multifaceted study design was utilized to quantify and compare the distribution of selected inflammatory cytokines in patients with LDH and control subjects. The diagnostic ability of these cytokines was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The cytokines values were correlated with selected radiological findings including disc herniation subtypes (protrusion, extrusion, and sequestration), and further categorized as contained and non-contained in patients using a Spearman’s rank correlation test. Additionally, computational analysis was performed to identify the central hubs and functionally enriched pathways.

Results In patients with LDH, IL-6 and IL-1β showed statistically significant (IL-6: p < 0.001; IL-1β: p = 0.001) rise, but IL-6 showed high diagnostic and discriminative power (AUC = 0.99; cut-off: 19.99 pg/mL). Further IL-1β exhibited a positive correlation with non-contained disc herniation (extrusion and sequestration), while displaying a significant (p < 0.05) negative correlation with protrusion. In silico analysis identified IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1α, CSF2, CSF3, and IL-10 as central hubs, with IL-1β being the top ranked hub in determining functionally enriched cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction.

Conclusions Study confirmed IL-6 as a powerful diagnostic marker for LDH, while IL-1β aids in determining contained and non-contained disc herniation. Further, IL-1β was identified as the central hub, triggering functionally enriched pathways in the pathogenesis of LDH.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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Ethical approval was obtained Ethics review committee of Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and written informed consent was obtained. Patient details will be maintained at high confidentiality, etc

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