Novel tissue engineering strategies may provide better outcomes for lumbar disc herniation

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Approaching therapy for herniated discs in the lumbar spine with novel tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies has shown promising outcomes in preclinical studies, according to a review published in BioResearch Open Access. These therapies can target the underlying problem of disc injury of instability, according to the review, where current nonsurgical and surgical treatments fail.

Though these emerging biological repair methods still face challenges as they advance to and through clinical testing in patients, they may be able to offer significant pain reduction and restore flexibility and motion of the spine.

In “Tissue Engineering a Biological Repair Strategy for Lumbar Disc Herniation,” Grace O’Connell, , University of California, Berkeley, USA, and J Kent Leach and Eric Klineberg, UC, Davis and UC, Davis Medical Center, USA, describe recent progress in clinical studies of cell-based tissue engineering approaches combined with materials-based advances.

“This review provides an excellent up-to-date source of information on the role tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies can play in disc herniation repair,” says BioResearch Open Access Editor Jane Taylor, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, UK.