Transport Phenomena in Intervertebral Disc

Low back pain represents a significant concern in the United States, with 70% of individuals experiencing symptoms at some point in their lifetime. Symptoms of low back pain have been strongly associated with degeneration of the intervertebral disc. Insufficient nutritional supply is believed to be a major mechanism for disc degeneration. Thus, understanding nutrients' transport in intervertebral disc is crucial to elucidate the etiology of disc degeneration, and to develop strategies for tissue repair, and tissue engineering. Transport phenomena in intervertebral disc are still poorly understood. This is partly due to the limited number of available experimental techniques for investigating transport properties, and the paucity of theoretical or numerical methods for predicting solute transport in the disc. In this work, new fluorescence imaging techniques were developed to experimentally determine solute transport properties in intervertebral disc. In addition, a mixture theory for charged hydrated soft tissues was presented as a theoretical framework for investigating on molecular transport and binding interactions in the disc.