Ex vivo intervertebral disc cultures: degeneration-induction methods and their implications for clinical translation

Elias Salzer, T C Schmitz, V Hm Mouser, A Vernengo, B Gantenbein, J U Jansen, C Neidlinger-Wilke, H-J Wilke, S Grad, C L Le Maitre, M A Tryfonidou, Keita Ito*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Because low back pain is frequently a result of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD), strategies to regenerate or repair the IVD are currently being investigated. Often, ex vivo disc cultures of non-human IVD organs or tissue explants are used that usually do not exhibit natural IVDD. Therefore, degenerative changes mimicking those reported in human IVDD need to be induced. To support researchers in selecting ex vivo disc cultures, a systematic search was performed for them and their potential use for studying human IVDD reviewed. Five degeneration induction categories (proinflammatory cytokines, injury/damage, degenerative loading, enzyme, and other) were identified in 129 studies across 7 species. Methods to induce degeneration are diverse and can induce mild to severe degenerative changes that progress over time, as described for human IVDD. The induced degenerative changes are model-specific and there is no "one-fits-all" IVDD induction method. Nevertheless, specific aspects of human IVDD can be well mimicked. Currently, spontaneously degenerated disc cultures from large animals capture human IVDD in most aspects. Combinatorial approaches of several induction methods using discs derived from large animals are promising to recapitulate pathological changes on several levels, such as cellular behaviour, extracellular matrix composition, and biomechanical function, and therefore better mimic human IVDD. Future disc culture setups might increase in complexity, and mimic human IVDD even better. As ex vivo disc cultures have the potential to reduce and even replace animal trials, especially during preclinical development, advancement of such models is highly relevant for more efficient and cost-effective clinical translation from bench-to-bedside.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)88-112
Number of pages25
JournalEuropean Cells and Materials
Volume45
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This publication is part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, Grant/Award Number: #825925(iPSpine) and the project NC-CHOICE, project number 19251, of the research program Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES) which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). BG acknowledges the Swiss National Science Foundation # 310030E_192674/. MAT received financial support of the Dutch Arthritis Society (LLP22). SG received financial support from AO Spine.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, European Cells and Materials. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Disc culture
  • organ culture
  • explant culture
  • 3R
  • low back pain

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