Abstract
Intervertebral disc degeneration is frequently implicated as a cause of back and neck pain, which are pervasive musculoskeletal complaints in modern society. For the treatment of end stage disc degeneration, replacement of the disc with a viable, tissue‐engineered construct that mimics native disc structure and function is a promising alternative to fusion or mechanical arthroplasty techniques. Substantial progress has been made in the field of whole disc tissue engineering over the past decade, with a variety of innovative designs characterized both in vitro and in vivo in animal models. However, significant barriers to clinical translation remain, including construct size, cell source, culture technique, and the identification of appropriate animal models for preclinical evaluation. Here we review the clinical need for disc tissue engineering, the current state of the field, and the outstanding challenges that will need to be addressed by future work in this area.
Highlights
Back and neck pain place a significant social and economic burden on modern society, affecting nearly 1 in 2 individuals annually
In a direct comparison of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and disc cells for whole disc tissue engineering, MSCseeded engineered discs sized for the rat caudal spine outperformed annulus fibrosus (AF) and nucleus pulposus (NP) cell-seeded constructs with respect to proteoglycan and collagen production over 15 weeks of culture in chemically defined media supplemented with TGF-β3.54 juvenile bovine cells were utilized in this study, so it is not yet clear how adult human MSCs would perform in comparison to disc cells
With the pervasive burden of back and neck pain in modern society, there is substantial promise for tissue-engineered replacement discs to advance the clinical treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration
Summary
Back and neck pain place a significant social and economic burden on modern society, affecting nearly 1 in 2 individuals annually.
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