Chapter 66 Neural transplantation (auto-adrenal, fetal nigral and fetal adrenal) in Parkinson's disease: the Mexican experience

Publisher Summary This chapter examines neural transplantation in Parkinson's disease (PD). In the study described in the chapter, 34 male and 8 female PD patients were selected for surgery. They had at least 3 of the 4 major PD symptoms, a Unified Parkinsonism Rating Scale (UPRS) score of less than 120 points in the “off” condition, a 50% response to L-dopa treatment for at least 3 hours, and a respiratory restriction because of rigidity during “off” of less than 40%. Using the same surgical technique in all cases, 39 patients received grafts to the right caudate nucleus (CN) and 3 to the left caudate, because of right sided predominance of the disease. An Ommaya-like reservoir was placed in 15 patients for ventricular fluid sampling. The statistical analyses of the clinical data were done with the Student's paired t test, the Wilcoxon's test for paired samples, and Rankit's normal order statistics. Neuropsychological data were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U-test. Biochemical data were analyzed using student's t-test, student's paired t-test, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. Biochemical assessments led to the identification of a neurite outgrowth promoting activity (NOPA).