ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1651786
Influence of Disc Height and Strain-Dependent Solute Diffusivity on Metabolic Transport in Patient-Personalized Intervertebral Disc Models
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- 2Centre Nacional de Supercomputacio, Barcelona, Spain
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Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a primary contributor to low back pain, with nutritional stress due to the IVD's avascularity recognized as a key factor. Solute transport within the disc relies predominantly on diffusion, which is governed by tissue morphology and mechanical deformation. However, the interplay between disc geometry, poro-mechanical strain, diffusion, and degeneration remains incompletely characterized. Previous specimen-specific models have captured inter-subject variability in metabolite transport, but the isolated effects of disc height and degenerationdependent material composition have not been systematically assessed. Moreover, although strain-dependent diffusion coefficients are commonly modeled as porosity functions, the role of intra-element diffusivity gradients (∇D), arising under large deformation, has been largely overlooked. Accordingly, the present study focuses on poromechanical finite element (FE) models of three patient-personalized L4-L5 lumbar IVD geometries, representing varying heights categorized as thin, medium, and tall IVDs. Three days of physiological mechanical load cycles, comprising 8 hours of rest and 16 hours of activity, were simulated, under both 'healthy' (Pfirrmann grade 1) and degenerated (Pfirrmann grade 3) tissue conditions. Simulation outcomes demonstrated that a one-third reduction in disc height (relative to medium height) led to > 30% increases in oxygen and glucose concentrations and ≥ 20% decreases in lactate levels, particularly in the nucleus and anterior regions. Conversely, a one-third height increase resulted in > 30% reductions in oxygen and glucose and a corresponding rise in lactate levels. These deviations were more pronounced in degenerated tissues, highlighting the synergistic role of morphology
Keywords: Intervertebral Disc, disc morphology, Nutrient diffusion, disc material property, Cell viability
Received: 22 Jun 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Workineh, Muñoz-Moya, Ruiz Wills, Lialios and Noailly. 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: Zerihun Getahun Workineh, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
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