TABLE 5.

Additional promising repair strategies.

Strategy	Effects	Defect	Type of model	Refs
ADAM8	Partial inhibition of ADAM8 protein hydrolysis may retard IDD	Only test a small fraction of genes	In vivo	Zhang et al. (2021)
Bleomycin	Induction of cellular pro-fibrosis and maintain IVD height; Short-term application of bleomycin would not induce noticeable alterations in the cell cycle and apoptotic rate	—	In vivo	Yang et al. (2021)
Low-loading hydrostatic pressure	Low-loading hydrostatic pressure facilitate to maintain cell survival and ECM homeostasis	Bioreactor pressure setting is not precise enough	In vitro	Wang et al. (2020)
Low doses of short Link N	Inhibits cell death and promotes IVD synthesis ECM	—	In vivo	Mwale et al. (2018)
Autologous PRP	Facilitates early recovery after injury	Need more studies and longer follow-up periods for evaluation	In vivo	Gelalis et al. (2019)
Short-term continuous low-tension traction	Provides stable intervertebral environment; Inhibits ECM degradation; Reduces AF tension; Restores IVD height	Excessive traction time lead to IVD degeneration	In vivo	Che et al. (2019), Guo et al. (2020)
PBM; Light-guided systems or photosensitizers	Downregulates MMP1 and MMP3 to restrain catabolism	Need more information on additional photoreceptors and effective doses before clinical application	In vitro	Hwang et al. (2020)