Abstract
Neck and low back pain are common among the adult human population and impose large social and economic burdens on health care and quality of life. Spine‐related disorders are also significant health concerns for canine companions with etiopathogeneses, clinical presentations, and diagnostic and therapeutic options that are very similar to their human counterparts. Historically, induced and spontaneous pathology in laboratory rodents, dogs, sheep, goats, pigs, and nonhuman primates have been used for study of human spine disorders. While each of these can serve as useful preclinical models, they all have inherent limitations. Spontaneously occurring spine disorders in dogs provide highly translatable data that overcome many of the limitations of other models and have the added benefit of contributing to veterinary healthcare as well. For this scoping review, peer‐reviewed manuscripts were selected from PubMed and Google Scholar searches using keywords: “intervertebral disc,” “intervertebral disc degeneration,” “biomarkers,” “histopathology,” “canine,” and “mechanism.” Additional keywords such as “injury,” “induced model,” and “nucleus degeneration” were used to further narrow inclusion. The objectives of this review were to (a) outline similarities in key features of spine disorders between dogs and humans; (b) describe relevant canine models; and (c) highlight the applicability of these models for advancing translational research and clinical application for mechanisms of disease, diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, and treatment, with a focus on intervertebral disc degeneration. Best current evidence suggests that dogs share important anatomical, physiological, histological, and molecular components of spinal disorders in humans, such that induced and spontaneous canine models can be very effective for translational research. Taken together, the peer‐reviewed literature supports numerous advantages for use of canine models for study of disorders of the spine when the potential limitations and challenges are addressed.
Highlights
Disorders of the spine comprise a major global healthcare concern in terms of pain, disability, and associated costs
Since the majority of clinical disease and related research have centered on the intervertebral disc (IVD) and endplatedriven, facet-driven, and muscle-driven disorders typical involved or affect the disc, the present review focuses on IVD disease and degeneration
Spontaneously occurring IVD degeneration in CD and NCD breeds of dogs provide highly translatable preclinical data for symptomatic disc degeneration disorders seen across the spectrum of age, cause, and pathology-associated patient cohorts
Summary
Disorders of the spine comprise a major global healthcare concern in terms of pain, disability, and associated costs. Disorders of the spine affect canine patients with similar prevalence and impact to that seen in human patients, such that translational potential is high, and results can be applied to clinical veterinary medicine as well. The objectives of the present review are to outline the applicable similarities in the key features of spine disorders between dogs and humans, describe relevant canine models, and highlight the applicability of these models for advancing understanding in mechanisms of disease, diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, and treatment of spine pathology. 2 | INTERVERTEBRAL DISC DISEASE IN HUMANS AND DOGS. Axial pain syndromes have had several distinct etiologies implicated to include paraspinal muscle dysfunction,[1] facet joint arthrosis,[2] inflammatory arthritides (including enthesitis),[3] and intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD).[4]
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