Degeneration of intervertebral disks is one of the main causes of back pain, worsening of quality of life, and sometimes disability of people of working age.

Commonly accepted methods of treatment are not able to restore a degenerated intervertebral disc, therefore, patients with pathology of intervertebral discs only have symptomatic therapy available, aimed at reducing back pain, sometimes surgical intervention, that is not always effective.

But modern science has come close to creating intervertebral discs from stem cells.

According to the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) succeeded to grow intervertebral discs in the laboratory and implanted them to the goats into the cervical part of the spine. Magnetic resonance imaging, performed 2 months later, showed that implanted “new” disks were functioning the same or even better as their own ones. After 20 weeks, the laboratory-grown discs integrated with the own tissues of animals.

Now scientists are working on a more ambitious project – the tissue engineering of human intervertebral discs.

Source: https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/11/30/new-spinal-discs-grown-from-stem-cells

In Ukraine, the Cryobank of the Institute of Cell Therapy has developed an innovative method for treating intervertebral disc herniation using the own cultured chondrocytes (cartilage cells) of the patient. This technology actually is being tested in a clinical trial in conjunction with the Romodanov Institute of Neurosurgery of NAMSU, and has already been awarded by the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine.