Manchester scientists edge closer to the causes of back pain, thanks to charity grant
SCIENTISTS in Manchester have taken a step closer to identifying the causes of back pain – one of the most common causes of illness and loss of work in Britain.
A team of researchers in the Bone Disease Research Centre at the University of Manchester have been awarded a grant of £57,778 by leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign to continue their work into the origins of back pain.
The team, led by Anthony Freemont, Professor of Osteoarticular Pathology, have already shown that the discs – the shock absorbers between the bones of the spine – become sites of nerve ingrowth in the backs of patients with back pain.
Now the scientists are aiming to find out why the nerves grow inwards, look at ways of preventing this from happening, and therefore reduce pain.
"We intend to look for a chemical naturally produced in the body which makes pain nerves grow, called nerve growth factor," explained Professor Freemont. "It's most important to find out whether the presence of this factor correlates with nerve ingrowth in humans, and because we have a different posture to four-legged animals it is only people who suffer with back pain.
"We will therefore be looking at bits of discs taken out at surgery to see if nerve growth factor is present within the discs and whether this correlates with the presence of nerves."
The Manchester team have spent the past ten years engaged in the study of the possible changes within the back which may explain the origins of pain that people experience.
