Homing of vertebral-delivered mesenchymal stromal cells for degenerative intervertebral discs repair - an in vivo proof-of-concept study.

Vertebrally transplanted MSC had a beneficial effect on the degenerative cascade in their neighboring IVD, and thus potentially present an alternative administration strategy. Further investigation will be needed to determine the long-term effects, elucidate the role of cellular homing versus paracrine signaling, and validate our observations on a large animal model.