title: Striatal neural grafting improves cortical metabolism in Huntington's disease patients.
abstract: Huntington's disease is a hereditary disease in which degeneration of neurons in the striatum leads to motor and cognitive deficits. Foetal striatal allografts reverse these deficits in phenotypic models of Huntington's disease developed in primates. A recent open-label pilot study has shown some clinical improvement or stabilization in three out of five Huntington's disease patients who received bilateral striatal grafts of foetal neurons. We show here that the clinical changes in these three patients were associated with a reduction of the striatal and cortical hypometabolism, demonstrating that grafts were able to restore the function of striato-cortical loops. Conversely, in the two patients not improved by the grafts, striatal and cortical hypometabolism progressed over the 2-year follow-up. Finally, detailed anatomical-functional analysis of the grafted striata, enabled by the 3D fusion of MRI and metabolic images, revealed considerable heterogeneity in the anatomic and metabolic profiles of grafted tissue, both within and between Huntington's disease patients. Our results demonstrate the usefulness of PET measurements of brain glucose metabolism in understanding the effects of foetal grafts in patients with Huntington's disease.
authors: URA CEA-CNRS 2210, 4 place du général Leclerc, 91401 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors: Véronique
authors: V
authors: Gaura
authors: Anne-Catherine
authors: AC
authors: Bachoud-Lévi
authors: Maria-Joao
authors: MJ
authors: Ribeiro
authors: Jean-Paul
authors: JP
authors: Nguyen
authors: Vincent
authors: V
authors: Frouin
authors: Sophie
authors: S
authors: Baudic
authors: Pierre
authors: P
authors: Brugières
authors: Jean-François
authors: JF
authors: Mangin
authors: Marie-Françoise
authors: MF
authors: Boissé
authors: Stéphane
authors: S
authors: Palfi
authors: Pierre
authors: P
authors: Cesaro
authors: Yves
authors: Y
authors: Samson
authors: Philippe
authors: P
authors: Hantraye
authors: Marc
authors: M
authors: Peschanski
authors: Philippe
authors: P
authors: Remy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D004453:Echoencephalography; D005260:Female; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose