OU Researchers Examine Using Embryonic Stem Cells to Treat a Degenerated Intervertebral Disc

Just last week, President Obama signed an executive order to permit federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. One condition that might be treatable with embryonic stem cells is a degenerated intervertebral disc. CBR member Rasul Chaudhry, of the Department of Biological Sciences, is hard at work studying this treatment. In the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery-Spine, Chaudhry and his coworkers published In Vivo Intervertebral Disc Regeneration Using Stem Cell-Derived Chondroprogenitors (Volume 10, Pages 265-272). They conclude that "This study illustrates a reproducible percuataneous model for studying disc degeneration. New notochordal cell populations were seen in degenerated discs injected with [embryonic stem cells]. The lack of immune response to a xenograft of mouse cells in an immunocompetent rabbit model may suggest all as yet unrecognized immunoprivileged site within the intervertebral disc space."