Autologous Stem Cell Therapy Maintains Vertebral Blood Flow and Contrast Diffusion Through the Endplate in Experimental Intervertebral Disc Degeneration

Abstract

Stem cell and hydrogel therapy is able to partly regenerate IDD and maintain perfusion and permeability of the vertebral endplate and subchondral bone. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI may become an important tool in future investigation of the vertebral endplate.

Cell therapy for the degenerating intervertebral disc

“…Thirty-seven of the animal studies reviewed utilized stem cells. Among these, 10 studies used autologous stem cells,(27–36) 15 studies used allogeneic cells,(25, 37–50) and 12 used xenogeneic cells (23, 51–61) (Table 1). Studies involving allogeneic and xenogeneic cells have shown good survival of these cells in the IVD, confirming that the disc niche is a relatively immunologically privileged site.…”

Computational pharmacokinetics of solute penetration into human intervertebral discs—Effects of endplate permeability, solute molecular weight and disc size

“…Apart from drug administration, this route is used for investigating nutrient pathways by following the movement of intravenously injected gadolinium in the disc by MRI (Bendsten et al, 2011;Nguyen-minh et al, 1998;Rajasekaran et al, 2004Rajasekaran et al, , 2008. While intradiscal injection of bioactive agents such as growth factors is currently the preferred route for experimental studies of disc repair (Bae and Masuda, 2011;Woods et al, 2011), an increasing number of studies suggests that needle puncture of the annulus may lead to disc degeneration and increases in the risk of herniation and of post injection surgery (Carragee et al, 2009;Michalek et al, 2010).…”

Interference in the endplate nutritional pathway causes intervertebral disc degeneration in an immature porcine model

“…One disc was stabbed with a no. 23 scalpel at the left anterolateral part at a depth of 6 mm (just reaching the NP; in a pilot study, we measured the AF width to be about 6 mm) as a positive control [15,16]. In the other disc, a slice defect was created in the vertebral body both caudally and cranially to the disc by drilling and curetting.…”