REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1582189
This article is part of the Research TopicApplication of Tissue Engineering in Bone, Joints, Ligaments Injuries and Cartilage RegenerationView all 6 articles
Engineering Strategies for Treating Intervertebral Disc Degeneration
Provisionally accepted
- First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China
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Low back pain (LBP) is becoming prevalent in clinics, owing primarily to intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). The mechanism of IDD is complex, and its pathophysiology is primarily characterized by a decrease in intervertebral nucleus pulposus cells and an imbalance in the synthesis and degradation of the extracellular matrix of the intervertebral disc (IVD). Grounded in the concept of regenerative repair, IVD engineering has emerged as a significant research focus in spinal surgery. This review systematically examines the relationship between LBP and IDD, describes the physiological characteristics of healthy IVD and the pathological features of IDD (including inflammatory responses and stress stimulation), and provides an overview of current treatment methods and clinical trials. The review focuses on summarizing and evaluating tissue engineering research, particularly the preclinical and clinical findings on the effects of various seed cells, bio-scaffolds, and bioactive factors on IVD, to explore a more comprehensive therapeutic approach. Lastly, the obstacles and opportunities of tissue engineering repair of the IVD are highlighted.
Keywords: Low Back Pain, Intervertebral Disc, Intervertebral Disc Degeneration, Stem Cells, Cell carriers, Biological scaffolds, Bioactive factors
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nie, Liu, Zeng, Hu, Wang, Huang, Chen, Hu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jun Hu, First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China
Jiankun Xu, First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China
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