Disc regenerative therapy (DRT) is an innovative procedure that enables the body to initiate its own healing process by injecting mesenchymal stem cells directly into the damaged disc. DRT activates the body’s natural repair mechanisms and helps relieve pain and restore function by triggering the regeneration of the missing disc tissue. This is in contrast to conservative treatment options and surgical interventions that only address symptomatic relief and muscular stabilization of the affected spinal segment.Check out : https://infusalounge.com/rengenerative-therapies/

Can regenerative medicine help degenerative disc disease?

Several in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that MSCs can survive the special microenvironment of the IVD and proliferate there (120,121). In addition, MSCs infiltrating the nucleus pulposus (NP) of degenerated human discs were shown to differentiate into NP-like cells and produced a large amount of extracellular matrix with partial recovery of disc height and hydration (122,133,144).

Recently, BM-MSCs expanded in vitro and injected into the NP of degenerated lumbar spine discs in a pilot phase-1 clinical trial showed a significant pain reduction and improvement of the hydration and structure of the NP compared to a control group without injection (146). Furthermore, transplanted MSCs demonstrated a high degree of immunosuppressive properties when induced by TGF-b1 in a biodegradable nanofibrous scaffold, indicating a possible role for MSCs in the immune privileged environment of the NP of IVDs (161).

In order to facilitate the migration of these progenitor cells into the nucleus pulposus and repopulate the degenerated disc, various growth factors have been investigated. Among them, the BMP family has proved to be promising, and in early large animal studies, its member BMP13 was shown to stimulate the migration of cells into the NP region (82).