Chronic low back pain is a common cause of disability causing major socioeconomic consequences. Recent advances in disc biology and tissue engineering techniques enable a new emerging field of biologic treatments for degenerative disc disease. These new treatment modalities aim to achieve structural and functional restoration of the degenerated discs by introducing protein, cells, genetic modifications of resident disc cells or exogenous cultured cells, and use of biomaterials. So far, these techniques have been successfully applied to treat degenerated discs in preclinical setting, including in vitro or in animal studies. Application of these treatment modalities for degenerative disc disease should be individualized according to the degree of disc degeneration. For the successful application in clinical field, the biologic treatment should achieve the functional restoration of the disc, resulting in pain regulation.
