Lower back pain (LBP) affects up to 80% of the population being intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration one of its main causes [1]. However, the existing treatments are focused only on pain relief [2] leading to a growing interest in the development of personalized cell-based tissue engineering (TE) approaches that address IVD substitution/regeneration. In this work, patient-specific substitutes for the outer region of the IVD (i.e. annulus fibrosus, AF) were printed using a silk fibroin/elastin ink by a rapid prototyping approach. The 3D model of AF was obtained by a reverse engineering technology that comprised a semi-automatic morphological segmentation from magnetic resonance imaging dataset of human IVD [3].  The bioprinted SF/elastin scaffolds were shown to possess structural and mechanical properties similar to the native AF and supports cell attachment and growth up to 21 days of culturing. The development of patient-specific SF/elastin implants that mimic patient AF anatomy can possibly the appearance of novel personalized treatments for IVD disorders.

1.            Diamond, S. and D. Borenstein, Chronic low back pain in a working-age adult. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol, 2006. 20(4): p. 707-20.

2.         Kalson, N.S., S. Richardson, and J.A. Hoyland, Strategies for regeneration of the intervertebral disc. Regen Med, 2008. 3(5): p. 717-29.

3.         Oner, T., et al., 3D segmentation of intervertebral discs: from concept to the fabrication of patient-specific scaffolds. Journal of 3D Printing in Medicine, 2017. 1(2): p. 91-101.