Medial fetal ventral mesencephalon: a preferred source for dopamine neuron grafts.
Currently, fetal tissue transplantation into patients with Parkinson's disease utilizes the entire ventral mesencephalon (VM) as donor tissue. However, the resulting mixture of cell types contains a relatively low proportion of therapeutically relevant dopamine (DA) neurons. We show that differential dissection of a medial region of embryonic day 14 rat VM yields a significantly higher proportion of DA neurons (8-10%) than is found in lateral VM (2%) or whole VM (4-5%). Medial VM also contained a larger number of the specific subpopulation of DA neurons (aldehyde dehydrogenase-positive; AHD) that project to dorsolateral motor region of the striatum. Selective dissection of fetal medial VM selectively enriches DA neurons in cell preparations useful for transplantation in Parkinson's disease.
Costantini
L C
LC
Neuroregeneration Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02178, USA.
Lin
L
L
Isacson
O
O
D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000637:transplantation*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase / Q000378:metabolism
D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase; D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase; D004298:Dopamine