Therefore, further knockdown/knockout experiments, co‐culture assays, conditional lineage tracing, or single‐cell secretome analysis may facilitate understanding the specific roles of Lcn2+ AFCs and Pdgfra+ AFCs in initiating and propagating key pathological processes in IVDD and opens new avenues for targeted therapeutic interventions aimed at preventing or slowing down disc degeneration. This evidence concerns the gene LCN2 and intervertebral disk degenerative disorder.