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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

An In Vitro Organ Culture Model of the Murine Intervertebral Disc
Published on: April 11, 2017
A computational spinal motion segment model incorporating a matrix composition-based model of the intervertebral disc
V M P Barthelemy1, M M van Rijsbergen1, W Wilson1
1Orthopaedic Biomechanics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The extracellular matrix of the intervertebral disc is subjected to changes with age and degeneration, affecting the biomechanical behaviour of the spine. In this study, a finite element model of a generic spinal motion segment that links spinal biomechanics and intervertebral disc biochemical composition was developed. The local mechanical properties of the tissue were described by the local matrix composition, i.e. fixed charge density, amount of water and collagen and their organisation. The constitutive properties of the biochemical constituents were determined by fitting numerical responses to experimental measurements derived from literature. This general multi-scale model of the disc provides the possibility to evaluate the relation between local disc biochemical composition and spinal biomechanics.
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