Stem Cells: Renew Tissue Related to Low Back Pain | Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell

You've definitely heard about stem cells in the news and wondered if they could help you or a loved one struggling with a life-threatening disease. You might also be interested in stem cells, how they're used to treat illness and injury, and why they're causing such a provoke.

Stem cells are exceptional human cells that can differentiate into various cell types. From muscle cells to brain cells, this can happen. They can also repair damaged tissues in rare circumstances. Researchers like Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell believe stem cell therapy can help people with catastrophic ailments, including paralysis and Alzheimer's disease. Adult bodily tissues and embryos are the two main sources of stem cells. Using genetic "reprogramming" techniques, scientists are also researching ways to create stem cells from other cells. 

Many people have struggled with low back pain at some point. Degeneration of the intervertebral discs (IVDs), positioned between the vertebrae and helping give the spinal column its flexibility, is a typical cause of this pain. As a result, IVD degeneration can develop into more significant problems such as spinal deformity. However, scientists found that utilizing cartilage tissue produced from human stem cells could help prevent IVD degeneration from causing loss of functioning.

IVD degeneration is thought to begin in the nucleus pulposus (NP), which is made up of NP cells that generate the extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM provides a supportive environment for the NP cells while also assisting in the mechanical flexibility of the NP. Previous research on therapeutic strategies involving native live NP cells that aid in the production of the ECM has shown promise, but these therapeutic effects are lost in advanced stages of degeneration when these cells are no longer available. Thereby, scientists set out to build a tissue-engineered implant that would contain the cells required to form and sustain the ECM in the NP.

The NP's ECM is a collagen network that provides a framework for other essential proteins. This composition is very comparable to that of articular cartilage's ECM. As a result, it was suggested that cell types capable of producing and supporting cartilage could be beneficial in treating IVD degeneration.

Because they lack natural NP cell growth and division restrictions, researchers and scientists like Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to differentiate into various cell types. They can also be stimulated to become chondrocytes, which are cartilage-producing and -maintaining cells. When transplanted into specific animals with articular cartilage abnormalities, this approach successfully produced repair tissue. In addition, they created human iPSC-derived cartilaginous tissue (hiPS-Cart) to be implanted into lab rats with the NP removed from the IVD as a model of IVD degeneration.

The hiPS-Cart implanted in these rats survived and was kept alive, "The scientists explain. "It was possible to avoid IVD and spinal bone deterioration. They also looked at the mechanics and discovered that hiPS-Cart could restore these qualities to the levels seen in control rats.

Six weeks after implantation, researchers and scientists such as Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell evaluated the gene expression profile of hiPS-Cart. They discovered chondrocyte-like NP cell features but not the other NP cell type (notochordal). This indicated that just these chondrocyte-like cells were enough to restore NP functionality. 

The scientists' findings strongly support the use of the hiPS-Cart system in the development of IVD treatments for humans.

This study proposes a new tissue-engineered construct that could be used to treat back discomfort caused by IVD degeneration and as a regenerative therapy that could completely cure the problem.