Intervertebral disc tissue is damaged and loses its normal physiological functions due to age-related degeneration, vigorous physical activity and trauma in all age groups and at any stage of life. Here we aim to present how to prepare human primary cell cultures effectively from intact intervertebral disc tissues obtained from the patients undergoing operations for spinal trauma and, from degenerated disc tissues obtained from patients with a lumbar herniated. In addition, it is aimed to explain bio/pharmaco-molecular methods used in their analyses at a molecular level in line with the current literature. Articles included in Pubmed between June 1988 and January 31, 2018, were searched with the key words “nucleus pulposus cell proliferation” and/or “annulus fibrosus” without language restriction. Data of descriptive statistics were analyzed using mean ± standard deviation or frequency (%) and demonstrated using Microsoft Office 2010 and Excel. In addition, it was explained how to obtain human primary cell culture from the tissues taken from two different localizations of the single intervertebral disc. A total of 419 articles were found to be potentially relevant, as a result of first search. In this literature review, cell cultures, which could possibly be the main focus of cell therapies in the field of neurosurgery in the near future, as well as current data were discussed from a molecular point of view.
 

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