Degeneration of the intervertebral discs : Effects of Mechanical Stress on Intervertebral Disc Cells ; Selection of a Cell Carrier for the In Vivo Delivery of Fetal Spine Cells

[...] Low back pain affects nearly 80% the population at least once in their lifetime. Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is thought to play a role in the development and onset of low back pain. The center part of the disc, the nucleus pulposus (NP), which supports high compressive loads daily, shows early signs of degeneration, long before the outer part of the disc, the annulus fibrosus (AF) degenerates. This work is divided into two parts: the first part focuses on the biomechanics of IVD cells in response to cyclic loading, whereas the second part focuses on the selection of a cell carrier for the further in vivo delivery of fetal spine cells to induce disc regeneration [... click on "Download fulltext" for full abstract]