|
|
||||
|
Neuron survival is not enough
Transplants of human embryonic dopaminergic neuron precursors survive in patients with severe Parkinson's disease but have only small clinical benefits and induce severe side effects.
Email: Tudor Toma - ttoma@mail.dntis.ro News from The Scientist 2001, 2(1):20010314-03
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
Parkinson's disease is associated with the loss of dopamine neurons in the caudate and putamen nuclei of the brain. Several groups have tried to slow down the neuron loss by transplanting embryonic precursors of dopaminergic cells and obtained some promising results. In the 8 March issue of New England Journal of Medicine a team from University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, published the first double-blind placebo controlled study of the transplant therapy (N Engl J Med 2001, 344:710-719). Unfortunately, the results are negative.
|