Lack of functional relevance of isolated cell damage in transplants of Parkinson's disease patients.
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.
Cooper
Oliver
O
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.
Astradsson
Arnar
A
Hallett
Penny
P
Robertson
Harold
H
Mendez
Ivar
I
Isacson
Ole
O
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