HCG18 and Intervertebral disk degeneration: HCG18 is also involved in some nonneoplastic diseases, such as diabetic peripheral neuropathy, coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, vascular disease, and intervertebral disc degeneration (Li et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2020a; Ren et al., 2021), which means that HCG18 is an important pathogenic factor in human diseases and needs to be further studied.