title: Lack of functional relevance of isolated cell damage in transplants of Parkinson's disease patients.
abstract: Postmortem analyses from clinical neural transplantation trials of several subjects with Parkinson's disease revealed surviving grafted dopaminergic neurons after more than a decade. A subset of these subjects displayed isolated dopaminergic neurons within the grafts that contained Lewy body-like structures. In this review, we discuss why this isolated cell damage is unlikely to affect the overall graft function and how we can use these observations to help us to understand age-related neurodegeneration and refine our future cell replacement therapies.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroregeneration Research, NINDS Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, MRC 130, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, USA.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Arnar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Astradsson
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hallett
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Ivar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mendez
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Isacson
mesh_terms: D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016631:Lewy Bodies / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000637:transplantation; D016896:Treatment Outcome