Low back pain is a common cause of disability and work inability, often associated with intervertebral disc degeneration. The current understanding of disc degeneration is limited and none of the available treatments is entirely effective. The work described herein investigates potential strategies for the biological herapeutic restoration of disc degeneration. Firstly, an in vitro study to investigate the effects of BMP-7 on human discal cellular viability was performed. Cultured cells were treated with TNF-a or H202 to induce apoptosis, resulting in the down regulation of extracellular matrix proteins, decreased cell viability, morphological changes and activation of caspase-3; however, addition of BMP-7 alone prevented the observed effects, demonstrating the ability of BMP-7 to prevent apoptosis of human disc cells in vitro. Secondly, the differentiation potential of stem cells towards disc-like cells was studied. Rodent mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) were cultured alone or co-cultured with rat disc tissue. Differentiation potential of rMSCs was evaluated by mRNA and protein expression, cellular function and morphological studies. The co-culture conditions led to the expression of chondrocytic markers in rMSCs, whereas rMSCs cultured alone did not express the chondrocytic markers. Cellular contact between the co-cultured rMSCs and the discal tissue were observed. This study demonstrated that rMSCs can differentiate into functional disc-like cells in a tissue influenced co-culture environment. Finally, the survival and differentiation of CD34+ or CD34?? bone marrow (hBM) cells, in an intra-discal xenogeneic transplantation rat model was investigated. Human CD34+ or CD34?? cells were isolated, fluorescent-labelled and injected into rat coccygeal discs. The survival of transplanted cells was confirmed by fluorescent positive cells as well as a human nuclear specific marker. Interestingly, CD34?? cells survived until day 42 in the injected discs, and differentiated into cells ex:pressing a chondrocytic phenotype. In contrast, CD34+ cells could not be detected by day 21. This data suggests that transplanted hBM CD34?? cells, in contrast to CD34+ cells, were able to survive and differentiate within the intervertebral disc. Together, the results of these studies can both encourage and contribute to the basis of potential biological therapies in the restoration of intervertebral disc degeneration.