Dynamic Compression Effects on Intervertebral Disc Mechanics and Biology

STUDY DESIGN: A bovine intervertebral disc organ culture model was used to study the effect of dynamic compression magnitude on mechanical behavior and measurement of biosynthesis rate, cell viability, and mRNA expression. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of loading magnitude on intervertebral disc mechanics and biology in an organ culture model. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The in vivo and cell culture response of intervertebral disc cells to dynamic mechanical loading provides evidence the disc responds in a magnitude dependent manner. However, the ability to link mechanical behavior of the disc with biologic phenomena has been limited. A large animal organ culture system facilitates measurements of tissue mechanics and biologic response parameters on the same…