The goal of this study is to investigate the role of Gli1+ osteogenic progenitors in the development of TMJOA. Overall design: Methods: mRNA profiles of mice receiving sham or partial discectomy surgery were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, usingNextSeq500 High Output. The quality of RNA samples was determined using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer and all samples for sequencing had RNA integrity numbers >6.