Why cell transplantation for treating degenerative brain disease?
The potential of cell-mediated, rather than classical pharmacological therapy of CNS disorders, is considerable. Most CNS diseases involve focal cellular dysfunction or degeneration that often cannot be treated effectively by diffuse, systemic delivery of pharmaceuticals. In a significant development for neural regeneration studies in the brain, the previously held view that the adult brain was a tightly wired and immutable system has been modified by studies indicating that transplanted fetal neurons can be integrated into previously damaged circuitry in fully matured brain5. Clinical trials now in progress use both allogeneic (within species)6-8and xenogeneic fetal brain tissue9 for implantation into Parkinson and Huntington patients. Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder characterized by akinesia, bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. Approximately 1% of the population above age 65 has Parkinson’s disease10. Symptoms result from the selective loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons
