FRIDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The use of stem cell therapy may be feasible for intervertebral disc degeneration, according to the results of a study published in the November-December issue of The Spine Journal.
Satoshi Sobajima, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted in vitro studies of adult human cells to assess interactions between nucleus pulposus cells and mesenchymal stem cells at different ratios in 3-D pellet culture, and in vivo studies of healthy adult rabbit discs injected with allogenic adult rabbit mesenchymal stem cells.
In the in vitro studies, the researchers found that 75:25 and 50:50 ratios of nucleus pulposus cells and mesenchymal stem cells were associated with the highest increases in extracellular matrix production. In the in vivo studies, they detected mesenchymal stem cells in rabbit discs up to 24 weeks after allogenic stem cell implantation, which suggested that stem cells migrate and engraft into the inner annulus fibrosus.
"These encouraging results support feasibility of a stem cell therapy approach toward supplementation/replenishment of intervertebral disc cells and synthesis/maintenance of a more functional extracellular matrix in a degenerated disc," the authors conclude. "Moreover, the in vivo results demonstrate that transplanted mesenchymal stem cells survive and successfully engraft into the intervertebral disc tissue, and are effective vehicles for exogenous gene delivery to the intervertebral disc -- thus there appear to be multiple mechanisms whereby stem cells might [be] able to confer therapeutic effects in a stem cell therapy of intervertebral disc degeneration."
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