The aim of the current study was to use gene therapy to attenuate or reverse the degenerative process within the intervertabral disc. The effect of survivin gene therapy via lentiviral vector transfection on the course of intervertebral disc degeneration was investigated in the current study in an in vivo rabbit model. A total of 15 skeletally mature female New Zealand White rabbits were randomly divided into three groups: Punctured blank control group (group A, n=5), punctured empty vector control group (group B, n=5) and the treatment group (group C, n=5). Computed tomography-guided puncture was performed at the L3-L4 and L4-L5 discs, in accordance with a previously validated rabbit annulotomy model for intervertebral disc degeneration. After 3 weeks, a lentiviral vector (LV) carrying survivin was injected into the nucleus pulposus. The results demonstrated that through magnetic resonance imaging, histology, gene expression, protein content and apoptosis analyses, group A and B were observed to exhibit disc degeneration, which increased over time, and no significant difference was observed between the two groups (P>0.05). However, there was reduced disc degeneration in group C compared with the punctured control groups, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Overall, the results of the present study demonstrated that injection of the LV carrying survivin into punctured rabbit intervertebral discs acted to delay changes associated with the degeneration of the discs. Although data from animal models should be extrapolated to the human condition with caution, the present study suggests potential for the use of gene therapy to decelerate disc degeneration.