Nucleus pulposus cells degeneration model: a necessary way to study intervertebral disc degeneration

The availability of an appropriate and reliable research model is helpful for researchers to understand the occurrence and development of diseases. Historically, animal models have been beneficial in the study of intervertebral disc degenerative diseases, but intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a precise and complex process that needs to appear and occur in a specific tissue microenvironment, and animal degeneration models cannot fully simulate these parameters. These challenges must be overcome, especially when animal models cannot fully generalise the complex pathology of humans. In the past few years, the research on the cell disease model has made important progress, and the construction of the nucleus pulposus cell (NPC) degeneration model has become an indispensable step in studying the occurrence and development of IDD. Here, several different methods of constructing NPC degeneration models and indicators for testing the effect of modelling are introduced. The practical applications of cell models constructed by different methods are enumerated to screen and evaluate effective methods of establishing degenerative cell models and explore the mechanism of IDD.