Most cases of lower back pain are due to intervertebral disc degeneration, wherein the soft tissue separating the vertebrae of the spine become dry and inflexible. Current treatment options only address the symptoms using a combination of pain relievers, physiotherapy or a more invasive procedure involving surgery. Using a patient's own stem cells, however, researchers have developed a treatment for such lower back pain.

The treatment Dr Richardson is developing uses a cell-based tissue engineering approach to regenerate the IVD at the affected level. This is achieved through the combination of the patients' own mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and a naturally occurring collagen gel that can be implanted through a minimally-invasive surgical technique.

"The gel used, produced by Arthrokinetics, is based on a collagen that is a component of many tissues within the body, a totally natural product that is similar to the gel already used clinically for the treatment of articular cartilage defects. The ability to reimplant this within the body with an arthroscopic procedure - similar to an endoscopy, in which a camera is inserted through a narrow tube into the body - means that there is only a very small scar on the back and the patient could hopefully return home on the same day or the day after the surgery. Once implanted the differentiated MSCs would produce a new NP tissue with the same properties as the original and would both treat the underlying cause of the disease and remove the painful symptoms."

The researchers have already applied for an international patent on this procedure and plan on conducting clinical trials next year.

Source: Univ of Manchester