Notochordal Cell Conditioned Medium for the Treatment of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration: A Species Comparison

Notochordal cell conditioned medium for the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration: a species comparison Introduction Intervertebral disc degeneration is related to low back pain in both humans and dogs (1,2). Notochordal cell conditioned medium (NCCM), produced from the healthy notochordal cell (NC)-rich nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue, has the ability to stimulate extracellular matrix production in human and canine degenerated NP cells (NPCs) in vitro. Therefore, NCCM is currently being used to develop new regenerative strategies for the treatment of disc degeneration (3,4,5). The aim of this study was to compare the potency of NCCM from different species on cell proliferation and matrix production of human NPCs and hence evaluate whether strategies based on canine NC have a potential for translation for both human and dogs. Material and Methods NCCM was produced by culturing porcine, canine and human NC-rich NP tissue for four days. NPCs from human donors were cultured in micro-aggregates. The microaggregates were cultured in species-specific NCCM and positive and negative control culture media for 28 days. Read out parameters were cell proliferation (DNA content) and matrix production (glycosaminoglycan content, Safranin O/Fast Green staining). […]