Sonic Hedgehog Regulates Intervertebral Disc Maintenance and Aging

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

2:30 PM-4:00 PM

BIOMED Seminar

Title:
Sonic Hedgehog Regulates Intervertebral Disc Maintenance and Aging

Speaker:
Chitra Dahia, PhD
Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Director, Spine Development and Regeneration Lab
Hospital for Special Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College

Details:
Intervertebral disc degeneration is a leading cause of back pain worldwide. The nucleus pulposus (NP), derived from the notochord, contains cells that express Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) and brachyury—critical developmental regulators. Our previous work showed that SHH signaling in NP cells governs neonatal disc development, but SHH expression declines with age and correlates with disc degeneration. 

To evaluate whether SHH regulates disc formation and long term maintenance, and whether restoring SHH could support disc rejuvenation, we developed genetic mouse models enabling conditional SHH deletion or overexpression in NP cells, along with lineage tracing. SHH loss accelerated disc degeneration, whereas SHH overexpression restored disc structure, improved cellular phenotypes, and prevented age related pathology. These findings demonstrate that developmental signaling pathways remain essential in postnatal disc health and identify SHH as a promising therapeutic target for disc repair and the treatment of back pain.

Biosketch:
Chitra Dahia, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Director, Spine Development and Regeneration Lab, at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. Dr. Dahia is a recipient of a 2011 OREF Career Developmental Award and several NIH awards, including three R01 awards. She is a nominated officer of the ORS Spine Section and ORS ABC committees, the ASMB fund-raising committee, the JOR Spine Advisory Board Committee, as well as guest editor of several special issues of JOR Spine. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of Connective Tissue Research. 

Dr. Dahia was the co-organizer of the 5th PSRS-ORS Spine Research Symposium in 2019. She is currently a standing member of the SBSR study section, CSR, NIH, and has previously served on numerous NIH study section panels and roundtable discussions.

Contact Information

Carolyn Riley
cr63@drexel.edu