# Stem cell-loaded microgels to treat discogenic low back pain

> **NIH NIH R34** · CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $1,655,677

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Low back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability and morbidity in the adult population, affecting approximately 80% of
adults within their lifetime. Up to 40% of all low back pain is attributed to discogenic pain from IVD degeneration. While
people of different races, ethnicity and gender suffer from chronic back pain, this disease has been shown to affect often
people from underserved communities. IVD degeneration is known to affect the NP, the central part of the IVD. Despite
decades of research, robust therapies targeting underlying causes rather than symptoms of IVD degeneration are still in the
earliest stages of development. Conservative treatments alleviate symptoms rather than targeting the underlying disease.
Stem cell therapy has been shown a great promise to regenerate IVD in animal models. Specifically, we have shown that
induced pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated to notochordal cells (iNC), the original progenitors of NP cells. Different
cell delivery and microencapsulation techniques will be explored to generate, iNC-microgel, preconditioned iNC-microgels
and iNCs in bulk hydrogel. Cell purity, identity, viability and sterility data will be obtained. Furthermore, the material
composition and properties will be investigated, and the stability of microencapsulated iNCs after preparation evaluated.
Safety and efficacy of the therapeutic candidates will be evaluated in a rat model of IVD degeneration and discogenic low
back pain, induced by disc puncture of the lumbar spine. After confirming successful induction of IVD degeneration,
different therapeutic candidates and controls will be injected. The candidate’s regenerative potential and reproducibility of
results will be evaluated by biobehavioral testing, MRI and immunohistochemical analyses. For mechanism of action
studies, single cell RNA sequencing of the treated IVDs will be employed.
The outcome of the study will be defined therapeutic candidate for low back pain stem cell therapy and multidisciplinary
team including biologist, clinicians, translational experts and statisticians that will be set up for biomanufacturing and IND-
enabling studies via U19 mechanism of the NIH HEAL initiative.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10398627
- **Project number:** 1R34NS126032-01
- **Recipient organization:** CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Dmitriy Sheyn
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,655,677
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-27 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10398627

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10398627, Stem cell-loaded microgels to treat discogenic low back pain (1R34NS126032-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10398627. Licensed CC0.

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