Vertebral fractures and separations of endplates after traumatic loading of adolescent porcine spines with experimentally-induced disc degeneration

Interpretation. The weakest part of the adolescent porcine lumbar spine with experimentally-induced degeneration, when loaded in axial compression, flexion compression or extension compression, was the growth zone, and, to a lesser extent, the endplate. Degenerated discs seem to withstand higher mechanical loads than non-degenerated discs, probably due to altered stress distribution.