Ovine Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Model Utilizing a Lateral Retroperitoneal Drill Bit Injury

Preclinical in vivo animal models of intervertebral disc degeneration. Part 1: A systematic review

“…Needle‐puncture models as described by Lipson and Muir (1981) in the rabbit, 119 have evolved to include scalpel blades (annulotomy), 46 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 annulectomies, 112 total discectomies, partial and complete nuclectomies, 8 nucleus pulposus aspiration 14 , 20 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 and drill bit injuries. 7 , 16 , 137 , 138 Clearly, these surgical insults vary in the burden suffered to the animal and therefore, the degree of IVDD that is induced. Consequently, there is also variation in the effect that can be measured or assessed on the experimental endpoints of these studies.…”

“… 8 Testing in preclinical animal models plays an important role in investigating the disc as they represent a critical surrogate in clinical translation with the purpose of furthering our understanding about the pathophysiology, treatment and prevention of IVDD. The ideal animal model should represent similar morphological and biomechanical properties to that of the human IVD 7 ; however, there are many fundamental differences between animal species and humans including but not limited to cell population, tissue composition, disc and spinal anatomy, biological development and functional biomechanical forces that the disc is subjected to daily. 8 While our understanding of the disc and it is degeneration has been enhanced by the exponential growth of spinal research in the past two decades, there are unavoidable disparities between animal species and humans and the results achieved from preclinical animal models need to be viewed with this knowledge in mind.…”

“…The most commonly selected timepoint across all species for all preclinical IVDD models was 4 weeks (49 manuscripts). Common timepoints by species were the following: goat-12 weeks (8 manuscripts); monkey-greater than 104 weeks (7 manuscripts); pig-12 weeks (7 manuscripts); rabbit-2 (7 manuscripts), 4 (17), 12 (14) and 24 (5) weeks; rodent-1 (18 manuscripts), 2 (24), 3 (5), 4 (24), 8 (19), 12 (16), 16 (5), 20 (5) and 24 (7) weeks; sheep-24 weeks (5 manuscripts). The number of manuscripts per experimental timepoint were also charted in reference to the specific method of degeneration utilized for the two most used species being rodents (Table 2) and rabbits (Table 3).…”

“…The ideal animal model should represent similar morphological and biomechanical properties to that of the human IVD. 7 However, there are many differences between animal species and humans including but not limited to; cell population, tissue composition, disc anatomy, spinal anatomy, growth and development and functional biomechanics. 8 A diverse array of IVDD methods have since been explored in varying animals with researchers employing models that feature surgical or chemical disc injury, non‐invasive mechanical stress, genetic modifications and natural occurrence.…”

“…In these studies, there is great variability in the selection of animals used, method of inducing disc degeneration and measurable experimental endpoints being assessed. The ideal animal model should represent similar morphological and biomechanical properties to that of the human IVD 7 . However, there are many differences between animal species and humans including but not limited to; cell population, tissue composition, disc anatomy, spinal anatomy, growth and development and functional biomechanics 8 .…”