The data within this depository is divided into three folders (1 -3) which contain histological, biochemical and biomechanical data respectively for tested intervertebral discs (IVDs).  Details of each folder follows:

1_Histology_images

The folder named: “1_Histology_images” contains two further folders named “Bovine_histology_images” and “Human_histology_images” which contain histology images for bovine and human IVD tissue regions respectiveley.  “1_Histology_images” also contains an image index in the file named “Image_index_bovine&human.xlsx” 

The “Bovine_histology_images” and “Human_histology_images” sub-folders each contain a further three folders named “DAPI”, “H&E” and “Safranin_O_Fast_green”.  Each of these three folders contains a further two folders with images for cellular and decellularised IVD tissue regions; these are called “(stain name)_cellular” and (stain name)_decellularised.   Within these folders are numbered .tif files, details for each (e.g magnification, tissue region etc) can be found in “Image_index_bovine&human.xlsx” in the “1_Histology_images” folder.

2_Biochemical_assays

The folder names “2_Biochemical_assays” contains DNA and GAG assay data for cellular and decellularised bovine and human IVD tissue regions.  This folder contains the following Microsoft Excel files: “Bovine_DNAassay_results.xlsx”, Bovine_GAGassay_results.xlsx”, Human_DNAassay_results.xlsx” and “Human_GAGassay_results.xlsx” the naming of which is self-explanatory.  This folder also contains an explanation of sample naming found within the Excel files and details of how the data was processed; this information can be found in the file called “Naming_and_data_processing_biochemical_data” and is available as both .docx and .txt files.



3_Biochemical_testing

The “3_Biochemical_testing” folder contains raw data for the cyclic compression testing of cellular and decellularised bovine IVD (“Bovine_cyclic_stiffness_data_pre&postDcell.xlsx”).  This folder contains data for the calculation of testing loads (“Bovine_load_calculations.xlsx”) and it also contains and explanatory document (“Sample-naming_and load_calculations”, available as .docx and .txt) which explains the sample naming system found in the Excel files and details on how load calculations were made.