Degenerative disc disease is an example of something that affects most people as they get older. Everyone is going to have a certain amount of damage to the spine. This occurs throughout a lifetime. The discs can flatten, and protrude from between the bones. In time, most people will have small tears in the outer layers of these discs.
Finding ways to repair damage to the discs is the focus of many research studies. One of the most recent directions in research has been the use of biologic therapies to restore the disc. Examples of these treatment approaches include disc cell reimplantation, stem cell implantation, disc denervation, injection of therapeutic proteins, and gene therapy.
Stem cells are the basic cells from which all other cells are formed. Attempts to inject stem cells into the disc (called stem cells implantation) so that they will form new disc cells have been limited. The internal cell environment of degenerated disc tissue is acidic and that doesn’t support new life very well. As a result, the stem cells are often quickly killed.
Stem cell studies for the treatment of degenerative disc disease have been limited with mixed results reported. Some of the newer studies are trying different ways to inject the stem cells into the cells. Others are looking for ways to keep the stem cells alive long enough to reproduce.
Efforts at stem cell implantation have been successful enough with small animals that scientists are trying to repeat the same studies on larger animals. They started with mice and rats and have moved to rabbits and minipigs (slightly larger than rabbits).
According to a recent review from orthopedic surgeons at the Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia), studies using stem cells on humans for degenerative disc disease have not been reported yet.