Human disc tissue

Abstract

This invention provides disc stem cells, processes for obtaining and culturing disc stem cells, and methods for repairing damaged or diseased disc tissue comprising the use of the disc stem cells of the invention.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61 / 442,315, filed Feb. 14, 2011 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 113,599, filed May 23, 2011, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention provides disc stem cells, processes for obtaining and culturing disc stem cells, and methods for repairing damaged or diseased disc tissue comprising the use of the disc stem cells of the invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Neck and lower back pain from degeneration of the spinal disc joint constitutes a common and significant health and economic burden. Indeed, roughly 80% of adults will experience neck and lower back pain at some point in their lives due to intervertebral degeneration. Intervertebral disc degeneration is a product of lifelong, slow, and chronic degeneration that is synchronized with remodeling of the disc and neighboring bony structu...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The method allows for the isolation and expansion of functional disc stem cells that can differentiate into nucleus pulposus cells, providing a sustainable source for regenerating disc tissue and potentially treating degenerative disc disease.

Problems solved by technology

Neck and lower back pain from degeneration of the spinal disc joint constitutes a common and significant health and economic burden.

Intervertebral degenerative disc disease contributes to structural weakness of the outer capsule known as the annulus, which leads to herniation or protrusion of the disc into the spinal canal or neuroforamina where it impinges on traversing and exiting nerve roots.

The drawbacks of this approach is the permanent disruption of the joint, and a high risk of chronic low grade arthritis in that joint secondary to the natural biologic response of healthy or normal tissue to tissue damage.

However, non-disc cells do not have the appropriate gene program required to survive in the harsh metabolic environment of the disc space, or produce the appropriate proteoglycan products, or have the intracellular biomechanical cytoskeleton and protein machinery to withstand the constant and significant compressive forces of the disc.

Additionally, nucleus pulposus cells lack the ability to divide more than a few times, and thus are not a sustainable cell source for long term regeneration.

Tissue engineering approaches have not been successful to date, in part due to limitations in knowledge and tissue biology relative to needs of disc tissue engineering and in part, to the harsh biomechanical and biologic environment of the disc, which is inhospitable to most cell types.

Finally, in the absence of a disc tissue stem cell for tissue engineering, the use of other stem cell types such as mesenchymal stem cells and embryonic stem cells has been attempted, but they do not naturally reprogram to functional disc cells successfully.

One of the major obstacles in disc repair using stem cell therapy is the ability to differentiate primary stem cell explants into the appropriate cell type and / or expand them in sufficient amounts for in vivo therapeutics.

Very often, the process of reprogramming or “pushing” a stem cell towards a given fate produces cells that may have some of the properties of the targeted cell type, but are not adequately functional, or a cell population extremely limited in its ability to proliferate further once they are manipulated in vitro.

The stem cells thus obtained are not a viable product, because (a) they are too few; and (b) they lack the proper phenotype and / or function.

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