Postmortem analysis of adrenal-medulla-to-caudate autograft in a patient with Parkinson's disease.
A 53-year-old physician who had a 10-year history of progressive idiopathic parkinsonism survived for 4 months after an autologous adrenal-medulla-to-right-caudate autograft but he received little clinical benefit. A small number of chromaffin cells in the graft site survived; they expressed neurofilament proteins and chromogranin A, but scant tyrosine hydroxylase. The striatum on both sides showed almost complete loss of [3H]mazindol binding to dopamine-uptake sites; the density of dopamine receptors was decreased adjacent to the transplant but increased rostral to the transplant. These results demonstrate that autografted chromaffin cells can survive for 4 months after transplantation and that related changes in dopamine receptors can be quantified.
Hurtig
H
H
Department of Neurology, Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 19146.
Joyce
J
J
Sladek
J R
JR
Trojanowski
J Q
JQ
D000313:Adrenal Medulla / Q000637:transplantation*; D001345:Autoradiography; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D002838:Chromaffin System / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous