Developing three dimensional culture system for Notochordal cells

INTRODUCTION: The central compartment of the intervertebral disk (IVD) is nucleus pulposus (NP) which contains two cell types, large notochordal cells (NCCs) and small cartilage-like cells. Loss of NCCs is related to disk degeneration as these cells are required for the maintenance of NP. Recently, NCCs have drawn increasing attention of many researchers from developmental biology, stem cells research, and tissue engineering because these cells are important in development and maintenance of NP. In our group, NCCs ...link_to_OA_fulltex