Table 2.

Effect of HGF on intervertebral disc in vitro and in vivo.

Study	Cell Type and Animal Model	Effects
Zou et al. (2013)	In vivo Rat-needle puncture model	Increase in NP water content Increased type II collagen staining in the NP Increased BMP-2-positive cells in the AF
Ishibashi et al. (2016)	In vitro Rabbit-NP and AF cells	Increased cell proliferation Inhibition of apoptosis induced by reactive oxygen species Suppression of MMP expression stimulated by TNF-α
Itsuji et al. (2020)	In vitro Rabbit-NP cells	Increased cell proliferation under hypoxia Upregulation of HIF-1α

NP, nucleus pulposus; BMP, bone morphogenic protein; AF, annulus fibrosus; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; HIF, hypoxia-inducible factor.