Abstract
Intervertebral disk (IVD) degeneration is one of the most common musculoskeletal disease. Current clinical treatment paradigms for IVD degeneration cannot completely restore the structural and biomechanical functions of the IVD. Bio-therapeutic techniques focused on progenitor/stem cells, especially IVD progenitor cells, provide promising options for the treatment of IVD degeneration. Endogenous repair is an important self-repair mechanism in IVD that can allow the IVD to maintain a long-term homeostasis. The progenitor cells within IVD play a significant role in IVD endogenous repair. Improving the adverse microenvironment in degenerative IVD and promoting progenitor cell migration might be important strategies for implementation of the modulation of endogenous repair of IVD. Here, we not only reviewed the research status of treatment of degenerative IVD based on IVD progenitor cells, but also emphasized the concept of endogenous repair of IVD and discussed the potential new research direction of IVD endogenous repair.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) associated with intervertebral disk (IVD) degeneration often prevents patients from participating in the labor market, which brings a very large economic burden to their families and society (Sakai and Grad, 2015; Deyo, 2017)
We have demonstrated that microenvironments with continuous high mechanical loads in the Intervertebral disk (IVD) inhibit viability, migration, differentiation of nucleus pulposus-derived progenitor cells (NPPCs) and lead to the loss of the characteristics of progenitor cells, which interferes with the endogenous repair of IVD (Liang et al, 2018)
Formulation of tissue engineering scaffold materials that are biocompatible and possess suitable biological activity provides an excellent strategy for protecting the IVD progenitor cells, which is an important factor in the effective treatment of IVD degeneration (Thorpe et al, 2017)
Summary
Low back pain (LBP) associated with intervertebral disk (IVD) degeneration often prevents patients from participating in the labor market, which brings a very large economic burden to their families and society (Sakai and Grad, 2015; Deyo, 2017). Similar to many endogenous progenitor cells, IVD progenitor cells can maintain a dynamic balance between repair and damage by regulating their proliferation and differentiation.
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