Freimark, DeniseCzermak, Peter2010-04-232010-04-232010-04-23http://hdl.handle.net/2097/3741During the last century low back pain has been emerged as a widespread disease often caused by intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). IDD in turn is a complex problem, in which a variety of causes play a crucial role. As IDD causes high costs, a corporate interest leads to a number of therapies developed. Today, these therapies focus on the restoration of the IVD function and not only on minimizing the pain caused by this disease. These approaches are often biological and aim to stimulate the regeneration of the intervertebral disc by injection of activator proteins, biomaterials, different cell types or complex cell-matrix-composites. Furthermore, the genetic engineering of disc cells and the in vitro tissue engineering offer a possibility for curing IDD. This article gives an overview on the concepts mentioned above.This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).Intervertebral disc regenerationCell transplantationMesenchymal stem cellArticle (author version)