Effects of Spinal Manipulative Treatment on Inflammatory Markers in Low Back Pain Patients

It is expected that mechanical low back pain (LBP) is associated with inflammatory changes localized to the affected tissues. Could such changes be detected in cells involved in the inflammatory process in an in vitro model? The investigators wish to test such a model to compare inflammatory markers in acute and chronic LBP patients and also examine the effect of spinal manipulative treatment (SMT) on changing the level of selected key inflammatory markers. The investigators hypothesize that: 1. Proinflammatory markers will be elevated while antinflammatory markers will be reduced in acute LBP patients relative to chronic back pain patients as well as in healthy study participants who have no LBP or any inflammatory conditions (controls). 2. SMT will cause a reduction in the production of proinflammatory markers while anti-inflammatory markers will increase relative to baseline levels as well as relative to controls