Potential to treat Parkinson’s using own brain cells
9 November 2009
New
research published in the journal Cell Transplantation (Volume
18, Number 7) suggests that the nerve cells lost in
Parkinson's could be protected or replenished using cells from a
person's own brain.
In Parkinson's, the dopamine-producing nerve cells found in a
tiny region of the brain called the substantia nigra are lost.
Dopamine is a chemical inside the brain that helps
send messages that instruct the body to move.
What the researchers did
The research team from Switzerland first collected tiny
samples of cells from outer regions of monkeys’ brains. They then
carefully extracted and grew specific cells with stem cell-like
properties.
Two weeks later the same monkeys were given low doses of the
chemical MPTP, a chemical which attacks nerve cells deep inside the
brain that are lost in Parkinson's.
Three weeks after MPTP treatment, the researchers transplanted
the modified nerve cells back into the damaged areas of the
monkeys’ brains.
The monkeys who received transplants had almost normal
levels of dopamine-producing nerve cells compared to less than half
in monkeys that only received MPTP treatment. The transplanted
cells were able to survive inside the brain, make contact with the
most damaged regions and either protect remaining nerve cells or
stimulate new nerve cells to grow.
What does this mean for Parkinson's?
Dr Kieran Breen, Director of Research and Development at the
Parkinson's Disease Society, comments:
"These exciting new findings offer hope that we may be able to
repair the Parkinson's brain using a person’s own cells. This would
avoid immune rejection and the ethical controversies that surround
embryonic cell transplants.
"As yet we don’t know exactly how these transplanted nerve cells
behave inside the brain or how long these effects would last. But
these new transplant studies combined with recent developments in
stem cell research show great promise for using cells from patients
to treat Parkinson’s."
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