Intervertebral disc-on-a-chip: a precision engineered toolbox for low back pain studies

Javad Tavakoli; Ashish D Diwan; Joanne L Tipper

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.04.009

Intervertebral disc-on-a-chip: a precision engineered toolbox for low back pain studies

Trends Biotechnol. 2023 Nov;41(11):1339-1342. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.04.009. Epub 2023 May 13.

Authors

Javad Tavakoli¹, Ashish D Diwan², Joanne L Tipper³

Affiliations

¹ School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; SpineLabs, St George and Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: javad.tavakoli@uts.edu.au.
² SpineLabs, St George and Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Spine Service, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, St George Hospital Campus, Kogarah, NSW, Australia.
³ School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. Electronic address: joanne.tipper@uts.edu.au.

PMID: 37188576
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.04.009

Abstract

Current in vitro intervertebral disc (IVD) models do not fully recapitulate the complex mechanobiology of native tissue, and so far there is no strategy to effectively evaluate IVD regeneration. The development of a modular microfluidic on-chip model is expected to enhance the physiological relevance of experimental data leading to successful clinical outcomes.

Keywords: disc microstructure; disc regeneration; intervertebral disc-on-a-chip; low back pain; microfluidics.