The ins and OUTs of disc biology

Back pain is a common and long-term problem worldwide. In general, the only intervention available is pain control. Although it is not clear why people develop back pain, it is known that spinal cells play an important role in this. Van den Akker developed some unique new models allowing these cells to be examined in more detail. It was shown that the spine contains two different types of cells: a sort of stem cell playing a key role in tissue maintenance and a cell causing damage to spinal tissue in certain circumstances. In the future, these stem cells may be stimulated to repair the affected spinal tissue.