Auto-immunity and intervertebral disc disease

The immunological approach to intervertebral disc disease is based on a number of clinical and biological facts observed in human pathology. Even allowing for the fact that the number of cases reported in recent research is small, and that the methods of clinical and biological investigation have not been standardised, and that there are differences of opinion concerning the nature of the disc antigen, encouraging results have nonetheless been reached in support of the immunity hypothesis. The importance of the immunity phenomenon in the multifactorial pathogenesis of disc disease still remains open to discussion. In the present paper the immunological data recently acquired on disc disease is reviewed.