Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. May 26, 2016; 8(5): 185-201
Published online May 26, 2016. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v8.i5.185
Stem cells sources for intervertebral disc regeneration
Gianluca Vadalà, Fabrizio Russo, Luca Ambrosio, Mattia Loppini, Vincenzo Denaro
Gianluca Vadalà, Fabrizio Russo, Luca Ambrosio, Mattia Loppini, Vincenzo Denaro, Department of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, 00128 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the manuscript, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gianluca Vadalà, MD, PhD, Department of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, Rome 00128, Italy. g.vadala@unicampus.it
Telephone: +39-06-225419142 Fax: +39-06-225411638
Received: October 30, 2015
Peer-review started: November 4, 2015
First decision: November 30, 2015
Revised: December 18, 2015
Accepted: February 14, 2016
Article in press: February 16, 2016
Published online: May 26, 2016
Processing time: 201 Days and 3.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: This review paper aims to share recent advances in stem cell therapy for the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration. The paper overviews the literature discussing the current status of our knowledge of the different stem cells types used as a cell-based therapy for disc regeneration. Intervertebral disc regeneration field is rapidly growing since disc disorders represent a major health problem in industrialized countries with very few possible treatments. Indeed, current available therapies are symptomatic, and surgical procedures consist in disc removal and spinal fusion.