Cells in fish's spinal discs repair themselves
Thursday, June 22, 2017 - 12:32
in Biology & Nature
A unique repair mechanism has been discovered in the developing backbone of zebrafish that could give insight into why spinal discs of longer-lived organisms like humans degenerate with age. The repair mechanism protects fluid-filled cells of the notochord, the precursor of the spine, from mechanical stress. Notochord cells eventually form the gelatinous center of intervertebral discs, the structures that often degenerate with age to cause back and neck pain.