The development and implementation of a six-axis bioreactor for regenerative therapies of the intervertebral disc

背部和颈部疼痛是全球非常常见的疾病，椎间盘的退变通常与这种疼痛有关，或者是导致退行性级联反应的因素，导致脊柱其他结构的疼痛。椎间盘是一个复杂的结构，力学环境和生物环境对椎间盘的健康和维护都起着重要的作用。然而，复杂的生理负荷对椎间盘细胞行为的影响尚不清楚，这限制了我们对椎间盘退变的理解，以及我们充分开发和评估椎间盘退变的再生治疗的能力。本项目将开发和实施第一个六轴生物反应器，它将能够对整个椎间盘培养施加复杂的生理负荷。这将提供独特的机会来研究与椎间盘退变相关的力学和生物环境的耦合，以及在椎间盘再生治疗的开发、优化和评估中。该项目将受益于一位访问学者(贾斯汀·库珀-怀特教授)的支持，他开发了一种新颖的、可注射的、基于水凝胶的椎间盘再生疗法，该项目的最后部分将评估这种疗法的有效性。

Back and neck pain are extremely common conditions globally, and the degeneration of the intervertebral disc is commonly associated with this pain, or is a contributor to the degenerative cascade leading to pain in other structures of the spine. The intervertebral disc is a complex structure, and both the mechanical and biological environment play an important role in the health and maintenance of the disc. However, the effect of complex physiological loading on the cellular behaviour in the disc is unknown, and this limits our understanding of disc degeneration, and our ability to adequately develop and evaluate regenerative treatments for disc degeneration.This project will develop and implement the first six-axis bioreactor, which will be capable of applying complex physiological loads to whole intervertebral disc cultures. This will provide unique opportunities to investigate the coupling of mechanical and biological environments relating to disc degeneration, and in the development, optimisation, and evaluation of regenerative treatments for the intervertebral disc.The project will benefit from the support of a Visiting Academic (Professor Justin Cooper-White) who has developed novel, injectable, hydrogel-based regenerative therapy for the intervertebral disc, and the final part of this project will be to evaluate the effectiveness of this therapy.