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Effects of Fetal-Cell Transplants to Treat Parkinson's May Nnot Last
| Author: Tony Cappasso |
| Article Date: 4/17/2008 |
Fetal cells transplanted into the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease have been promoted as the most promising treatment for the movement disorder. But new research suggests the effects of those transplants may not last in Parkinson’s patients.
Neurons grafted into the brain of a patient with Parkinson’s disease fourteen years ago have developed Lewy body pathology, the defining pathology for the disease, according to research by Jeffrey H. Kordower, PhD, and associates and published in the April 6 issue of Nature Medicine.
Kordower said the findings suggest that the pathophysiologic process that leads to symptoms of the illness may be an ongoing one that affects transplanted fetal cells in the same way it destroys dopamine producing cells in the brains of affected patients.
The collaborative research study described in the article involves Rush, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and the University of South Florida, Tampa, In it, individuals with Parkinson’s disease received fetal cell transplants to reverse the loss in the brain of striatal dopamine.
The individual described in this article was a woman with a 22-year history of Parkinson’s disease who underwent transplantation in 1993. After transplantation she experienced improvements in disease symptoms as measured by the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and required substantially lower doses of antiparkinsonian medications. Her UPDRS scores remained improved into1997, but by 2004, she experienced progressive worsening of Parkinson’s disease symptoms. She died in 2007 and her brain and that of two other patients in the study were comprehensively processed and analyzed. She had the longest survival after transplantation that had been reported to date among this study’s participants.
Scientists have long debated whether Parkinson’s disease results from an acute insult or event, or whether it is an ongoing pathological process that continues to affect healthy neurons, according to Kordower. This research indicates that mechanisms and molecules responsible for initiating the degenerative process are still present at a late stage and are capable of affecting grafted neurons. In addition, the processes that destroy dopamine neurons are not restricted to the midbrain, he says.
Source: Nature Medicine, April 6, 2008
Neurons grafted into the brain of a patient with Parkinson’s disease fourteen years ago have developed Lewy body pathology, the defining pathology for the disease, according to research by Jeffrey H. Kordower, PhD, and associates and published in the April 6 issue of Nature Medicine.
Kordower said the findings suggest that the pathophysiologic process that leads to symptoms of the illness may be an ongoing one that affects transplanted fetal cells in the same way it destroys dopamine producing cells in the brains of affected patients.
The collaborative research study described in the article involves Rush, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and the University of South Florida, Tampa, In it, individuals with Parkinson’s disease received fetal cell transplants to reverse the loss in the brain of striatal dopamine.
The individual described in this article was a woman with a 22-year history of Parkinson’s disease who underwent transplantation in 1993. After transplantation she experienced improvements in disease symptoms as measured by the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and required substantially lower doses of antiparkinsonian medications. Her UPDRS scores remained improved into1997, but by 2004, she experienced progressive worsening of Parkinson’s disease symptoms. She died in 2007 and her brain and that of two other patients in the study were comprehensively processed and analyzed. She had the longest survival after transplantation that had been reported to date among this study’s participants.
Scientists have long debated whether Parkinson’s disease results from an acute insult or event, or whether it is an ongoing pathological process that continues to affect healthy neurons, according to Kordower. This research indicates that mechanisms and molecules responsible for initiating the degenerative process are still present at a late stage and are capable of affecting grafted neurons. In addition, the processes that destroy dopamine neurons are not restricted to the midbrain, he says.
Source: Nature Medicine, April 6, 2008