Spine Biomechanics: A Review of Current Approaches

The lumbar spine is a fundamental structure of the human body involved in almost any functional activity. Thus, the investigation of spine pathophysiology is of relevance for many research fields. In particular, research on spine biomechanics may provide important insights on the etiology of diseases affecting spinal tissues. More specifically, spine mechanics and biochemistry can provide crucial information on adverse mechanical loading conditions or unfavorable biochemical environment which can trigger the degeneration of the intervertebral disc, a major structural component of the spine. Several techniques have been developed for characterizing mechanical loads acting on the spine. Hereby, a review imaging methods, motion capturing, and mixed approaches integrating biomechanical analytical frameworks with motion analysis is reported. Several factors can disrupt the homeostasis of the disc, and insufficient nutritional supply to IVD tissue or reduced anabolic activity of disc cells are crucial ones. Since the metabolism of the IVD is complex and characterized by many biochemical events, mathematical modeling is a convenient approach for garnering information that would be too complex to obtain via in-vivo or in-vitro experiments. In this contribution, the latest computational models and their major results are summarized and discussed.