Chapter 69 The clinical application of cell grafting techniques in patients with Parkinson's disease

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the clinical application of cell grafting techniques in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The vast majority of the animal experimental work has dealt with fetal rat mesencephalic grafts into 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats. In contrast, the animal studies of adrenal autografts, grafts into 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-lesioned primates, and the grafts of human fetal nigral cells into animals have been relatively few in number. Fetal mesencephalic grafts appear to survive better for making synaptic connections and producing more comprehensive and long-lasting behavioral effects. However, even these grafts do not improve all the behavioral deficits of lesioned animals. On the basis of existing animal experimental work, it would seem that the best chance of producing graft survival and functional effects in humans would be to place stereotactically mesencephalic cells from a human fetus of below 12 weeks gestation into the putamen and give immunosuppressant drugs.