An Ex Vivo Model of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration for Assessing Retention of Injectable Cell-Based Grafts.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Cell therapies for painful intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (IDD) have not yet achieved widespread clinical adoption. Understanding therapeutic cell effects in native IVD remains challenging due to the complex IVD environment and limitations of current models. We present a physiologically relevant ex vivo model of IVD degeneration, which we employ to evaluate the retention of therapeutic cells in the IVD.

Methods

Bovine IVDs were cultured ex vivo for 14 days. IVD degeneration was induced under physiological loading by chondroitinase ABC (ChABC), or ChABC with pro-inflammatory cytokines (Infl) aiming to mimic IDD. The nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue integrity was characterized by T2 MRI and modified Thompson grading and compared with human IVDs of different ag

SUBMITTER: Schmid R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12648434 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature