| Low back pain is one of the largest medical and social problems faced in the world today. Intervertebral disc degeneration is considered to be one of the major causes of low back pain, once the degenerative process is activated, it is difficult to decelerate, and is ultimately considered to be an irreversible condition. Degeneration of the intervertebral disc is an irreversible phenomenon with no currently available treatment. Though traditional therapeutic methods, including conservative and surgical treatment modalities are often effective at ameliorating the symptoms of this disease, each modality possesses limitations, such as symptoms recalcitrant to conservative therapy and the considerable expense and risk of complications with surgical treatments. In addition, these treatments primarily target the clinical manifestations of disc degeneration, as opposed to addressing the biologic changes occurring within the intervertebral disc. Recent experimental studies focusing on decelerating disc degeneration have provided insight into the future management of degenerative disc diseases. However, adequate methods for broad clinical application have not yet been available.As a result, investigators begin to pay more attention toexploit and research the tissue engineering intervertebral disc.Tissue engineering is restricted by three key agents: seeding cells, scaffold and extracelluar matrix. Among them, the seeding cells, which should have proliferation capacity, long-term biological properts, low antigenicities and strong tissue repair abilities, have always been in the key point. As their characteristics according with those of the seeding cells in tissue engineering, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells have been used in tissue engineered bone extensively. But despite the great interest in mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs), there is still no well-defined protocol for using of the cells in tissue engineered intervertebral disc.
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