Modern approaches to modeling in vivo degenerative spine diseases

Abstract

Every year, more and more people suffer from illnesses and disabilities that occur due to lumbar pain. Many studies, someof that use in-vivo models, are conducted to decrease the socioeconomic impact of the consequences of degenerative spinediseases. Objective. To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different in vivo models that are used to study the mechanisms of development of degenerative disturbances in spinal motion segments and test prospective methods of treating them. Methods. A search was conducted in the PubMed, Google Scholar, and Base scientific databases with the following key words: Spinal Diseases, Spine Disorder, Intervertebral Disc Degeneration (Repair), Facet Joint Degeneration (Repair), Animal Model, Facet (Zygapophyseal) Joint Osteoarthritis, Canine (dog), Swine (Pig), Ovine (sheep), Rabbit, Rat, Mice. The depth of the search was 10 years. Results. Rodents, pigs, goats, dogs, sheep, and primates are used to study mechanisms of development of degenerative disturbances in spinal motion segments and to test different approaches. Studies on larger animals are conducted due to their similarities in size, anatomy, biomechanics, and histological structure of vertebrae and intervertebral discs to humans. Models using dogs and alpacas are specifically of interest because of the natural age-related degradation of their intervertebral discs. However, experiments using large animals are restricted by high costs and bioethics regulations. The use of rabbits, rats, and mice in experiments is promising. For these animals, degenerative disturbances in the spine are modeled by creating traumatic injuries (disturbing the integrity of facet joints, endplates, annulus fibrosus, and nucleus pulposus, nucleotomy, and discectomy) or injection of chemical agents. Conclusions. The advantages of using of rodents instead of large animals to model the mechanisms of development of degenerative spine diseases and to test treatment methods include the relative ease of use and reproducibility of experiments, and economic and ethical viability. However, models should be chosen carefully and according to with the aims of the study.