Table 1.

Preclinical Models for Intervertebral Disc Tissue Engineering

In vitro
Cell culture	Organ culture	Biomechanical	Outcome measures	References
Bovine tail disc cells Human disc cells			Cell viability, proliferation, matrix production, cytokine secretion	51,52 53
	Bovine tail Sheep tail Rabbit		Cell viability, proliferation, matrix production, cytokine secretion, water content, morphology, biomechanics	54–57
		Human cadaver	Range of motion, neutral zone, stiffness, strength, implant migration, implant retention, fatigue resistance	58,59

In vivo
Small animal	Large animal
Rat, rabbit			X-ray measure of disc height, MRI and histologic grading, GAG and collagen content, gene expression, cytokine production	60–66
	Goat, minipig		Biomechanics, disc height, MRI and histologic grading, GAG and collagen content, cytokine production	67–69

GAG, glycosaminoglycan; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.