Alberta Innovates- Health Solutions

Lower back pain can occur with the breakdown of the discs found between the bones in the spine. Disc degeneration happens as we age but Dr. Neil Duncan in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Calgary wants to understand how it breaks down over time and why some suffer more than others.

Like a shock absorber, the disc, a gelatinous core surrounded by flexible fibrous tissue, sits between each spinal vertebra and lets the back bend in many directions. It is the largest area of tissue without a blood supply which hampers its cells' abilities to get food and oxygen.

As the disc loses its fluid properties (over time), the fibrous tissue experiences altered mechanical loads which can cause the disc to breakdown. Ligaments and joints compensate by bearing increased stress and strain. This added load pressure can lead to injury.

Dr. Duncan, a biomedical engineer, uses a computer model to determine the material properties of disc-cell tissue. “We try to figure out how stiff the discs are, and if you push them, how much they deform, or physically change their shape.”

Tissue bioengineering has a tremendous potential to address the problems associated with disc degeneration and related back surgery (usually a fusing of the affected vertebrae). It is a process of growing human tissue artificially or stimulating it to grow. “Some scientists are already taking skin and cartilage cells from particular patients, growing them in the lab and then implanting them back into the patient.”

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