Abstract
Low back pain due to degeneration of intervertebral disc (IVD) is a major health problem resulting in significant disability as well as adding to the economic burden. Discectomy is a very common procedure done worldwide to relieve this pain. At present all the surgically removed disc tissue is mostly discarded. However, there are reports that state that progenitor cells in the IVD can be grown ex vivo and have the potential to be used for IVD repair and regeneration. We report here that viable cells can be harvested from surgically removed, herniated disc tissue and can be potentially used in cell based therapy. Further, we have successfully replaced xenogenic supplements such as foetal bovine serum with either autologous serum or human platelet lysate for culturing IVD cells from patient’s surgically removed disc tissue, without loss of any cell characteristics, including cell surface markers, growth factor secretion in the conditioned medium and osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation potential in vitro. The present work will not only contribute to overcoming some of the major barriers in carrying out human clinical trials, but also provide a cheap, alternate source of proteins and growth factors for growing IVD cells ex vivo for therapy.
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Acknowledgements
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Delhi, is acknowledged for funding SN under the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIRAC/Venture0261/BIG-11/17). Help received from staff of BKL Walawalkar Rural Hospital, Sawarde, India, as well as from Ms. Sonali Mhatre and Ms. Seema Rajwade, in setting up the tissue culture lab and doing the initial experiments, is acknowledged. Assistance received from Dr. N. Vyas, Institute of Applied Biological Research and Development, Pune, and Dr. M. Wani, NCCS, Pune, in carrying out flow cytometry and differentiation assays is acknowledged.
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Mujawar, S., Iyengar, K., Nadkarni, S. et al. Expansion and characterization of cells from surgically removed intervertebral disc fragments in xenogen-free medium. J Biosci 45, 108 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-020-00091-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-020-00091-w