Cell therapy for Parkinson's disease: Why it doesn't work every time.

ABSTRACT: The clinical experience with cell replacement therapy for advanced PD has yielded notable successes and failures. A recent autopsy case report of an individual that received implants of fetal dopamine neurons 16 years previously, but at no time experienced clinical benefit despite the best documented survival of grafted neurons and most extensive reinnervation of the striatum, raises sobering issues. With good reason, a great deal of effort in cell replacement science continues to focus on optimizing the cell source and implantation procedure. Here, we describe our preclinical studies in aged rats indicating that despite survival of large numbers of transplanted dopamine neurons and dense reinnervation of the striatum, synaptic connections between graft and host are markedly decreased and

SUBMITTER: Collier TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6771700 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature