Spine and Spinal Cord Injury

Dear Colleagues,

Low back pain (LBP), a prevalent and debilitating condition with extensive socioeconomic impacts, is today’s major public health concern that affects the quality of life of billions of people around the world annually. Since pain can induce mental health issues and create a major annual economic burden worldwide, a call for global action was announced in the Lancet to meet the associated challenges for LBP in 2018.

Degenerative changes in spinal intervertebral discs (IVDs) are frequently detected in patients suffering LBP. Current treatments for degeneration-induced LBP include conservative methods (i.e., rehabilitation) and surgical interventions, depending on the severity of IVD degeneration. To reduce LBP in highly degenerative IVDs, biomaterial (metal, ceramic, polymers, or composites) fusion instrumentation and motion preservation devices are frequently used. However, they may limit the spine’s mobility, accelerate the degeneration of adjacent IVDs, and lead to long recovery times with notable post-surgery complications. Moreover, the generation of volumetric wear and particulate debris, which is likely to occur after total IVD replacement, is a concern which compromises the longevity of spinal implants. There are growing concerns within the neurosurgical community regarding the exposure of periprosthetic tissue—in particular, the spinal cord—to metal wear particles and ions from spinal implants. It is believed that wear particles and metallic ions affect the biological function of the spinal cord and IVD, and trigger hypersensitivity, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and inflammation as well as the formation of pseudotumors.

Due to the inherent restrictions associated with the use of spinal implants and to minimize their side effects on the spine and spinal cord biology, structure, and function, there is a significant unmet need for new treatment options. Tissue engineering approaches, including gene, molecular, and cell therapies to regenerate IVD, represent better options compared to the current conventional treatment and can eliminate concerns about the side effects of wear particles on the spine and spinal cord biology, structure, and function. However, despite intense research interest, attempts to regenerate IVD have failed so far, and no effective strategy has translated into a successful clinical outcome. Therefore, the focus of the proposed Special Issue is IVD and spinal cord regeneration using cell and molecular therapies to address the abovementioned challenges. The guest editors welcome bioengineers, biologists, surgeons, biomedical and mechanical engineers, health scientists, and all researchers in the field to submit their high-quality research work (Reviews, Research, Communications) falling within the scope of the Special Issue and share their state-of-the-art knowledge.

Potential topic areas include, but are not limited to:

• Cell and molecular therapies for IVD and spinal cord regeneration, including new tissue engineering models (3D tissue-engineered scaffolds and organ-on-a-chip and microfluidic systems).
• Current commercial approaches for molecular- and cell-based IVD and spinal cord regeneration.
• IVD and spinal cord injury models for cell and molecular research.
• Isolation and characterization of spinal implant wear particles, and determination of the neural and IVD cellular responses to wear particles and ions.
• Safety and efficacy of current cell and molecular therapies for IVD and spinal cord regeneration.
• Effective cell and molecular delivery techniques for IVD and spinal cord regeneration.
• Physiologically relevant efficiency metrics for IVD and spinal cord regeneration.
• Biomechanics and mechanobiology (including computational approaches) of IVD and spinal cord.
• Biology and structure–function relationship of IVD and spinal cord and their impact on cell therapy approaches.
• Neural and IVD stem and primary cell interactions with tissue-engineered scaffolds and hydrogel systems.

Prof. Dr. Joanne Tipper
Dr. Javad Tavakoli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• spine
• spinal cord
• intervertebral disc
• tissue engineering
• regenerative medicine
• cell therapy
• molecular therapy
• injury models
• organ-on-a-chip and microfluidic systems for cell therapy
• mechanobiology
• spinal implants wear particle
• safety and efficacy

• Molecular and Cellar Research of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury in International Journal of Molecular Sciences (3 articles)