Notochordal Cells for Treatment of Degenerative Disk Diseases

Degenerative disc disease (DDD) is an extremely common and expensive healthcare ailment which, unlike advances in biologic therapies for fracture management and disease modifying drugs for various arthropathies, has no curative strategy which attenuates or reverses the degenerative cascade. A feature of DDD is the progressive loss of proteoglycan-rich matrix from the spine. This loss results in the loss of hydro-static and vicso-elastic properties of the spine disc nucleus. An ideal interven-tion would be to interrupt the progressive degeneration of the disc by stimulating the local chondrocyte population to maintain production of the extra-cellular proteoglycans. This in turn will protect the matrix from the action of enzymes and kinetic-associated pressure. The researchers have previously shown that non-chondrodystrophic canine intervertebral discs-derived notochor-dal cells secrete Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF/CCN-2) and that conditioned medium obtained from these cells upregulates important matrix gene expression, cell proliferation and proteoglycan production in nucleus pulposus cells. The re-searchers demonstrated for the first time that notochordal cells derived from non-chondrodystrophic dogs thrive and form com-plex 3D tissue constructs. Notochordal cells can be cultured and expanded for use in treatment of degenerative disk dis-eases.