In recent years, owing to the increasing incidence of intervertebral disc degeneration and age-related early onset, spinal diseases caused by intervertebral disc degeneration have reduced quality of life. The uncertainty of the mechanism of degeneration increases the complexity of the treatment method . To further explore the causes of intervertebral disc degeneration and its pathology, we conducted a literature review to explore the differences between animal models of intervertebral disc degeneration to enable the optimal simulation of human intervertebral disc degeneration to be identified.