Harnessing the Potential of Mesenchymal Stem Cells for IVD Regeneration.

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is one of the leading causes of low back pain, which affects a large proportion of the global population at a huge socioeconomic burden. Current treatments focus primarily on symptomatic pain relief or surgery, but offer relatively poor long-term efficacy as they fail to address the pathogenesis of the underlying IVD degeneration. In order to offer improved clinical outcomes, a number of biological and regenerative therapies are currently being developed which target the disease at a molecular and cellular level and aim to restore IVD function.

Growth differentiation factor 6 and transforming growth factor-beta differentially mediate mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, composition, and micromechanical properties of nucleus pulposus constructs.

Introduction: Currently, there is huge research focus on the development of novel cell-based regeneration and tissue-engineering therapies for the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration and the associated back pain. Both bone marrow-derived (BM) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and adipose-derived MSCs (AD-MSCs) are proposed as suitable cells for such therapies. However, currently no consensus exists as to the optimum growth factor needed to drive differentiation to a nucleus pulposus (NP)-like phenotype.