Abstract:[Objective] To investigate the effects of ionizing radiation on aging and aging-related secretion phenotype expression of ratannulus fibrosus cells. [Methods] Six mature SD rats were selected to harvest lumbar intervertebral disc annulus fibrosus cells. The annu-lus fibrosus cells cultured under the same conditions were randomly divided into two groups, which received ionizing X-ray radiation indose of 0 Gy and 15 Gy respectively. The senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) was assayed to determine the senescence ofannulus fibrosus cells. [Results] After being treated with 15 Gy ionizing radiation, the annulus fibrosus cells showed typical characteristicsof aging morphology, and the positive staining percentage of annulus fibrosus cells was 77% by SA-β-Gal assay. The CCK-8 test showedthat the OD value in the non-irradiated group increased gradually (P<0.05), but there was no statistical significance in the comparison of OD values in the irradiated group (P>0.05). Both IF and PCR tests showed that aging related genes in the radiation group, including P16[(5.2±0.3) vs (1.0±0.1), P<0.001], P21 [(12.9±0.5) vs (1.0±0.1), P<0.001] were significantly higher than those in the non-radiation group,whereas the expression of SASP in the radiation group including Col-1 [(1.6±0.1) vs (1.0±0.1), P=0.004], Col-2 [(7.0±0.4) vs (1.0±0.1), P<0.001], IL-6 [(7.9±0.2) vs (1.0±0.1), P<0.001], IL-8 [(1.8±0.1) vs (1.0±0.1), P<0.001], matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 [(39.2±0.6) vs(1.0±0.1), P<0.001] and MMP-3 [(4.5±0.3) vs (1.0±0.1), P<0.001] were significantly higher than those in the non-radiation group. [Conclu-sion] Ionizing radiation can induce senescence of rat intervertebral disc annulus cells, and the expression of senescence related secretionphenotype is significantly increased.