>From: WE MOVE <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Ten-year survival and function of transplanted fetal cells
>Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 10:33:56 -0600
>
>Dopamine release for nigral transplants visualized in vivo in a
>Parkinson's patient
>P Piccini, DJ Brooks, A Bjorklund, RN Gunn, PM Grasby, O Rimoldi, P
>Brundin, P Hagell, S Rehncrona, H Widner, O Lindvall
>Nature Neuroscience 1999;2:1137-1140
>
>Transplanted nigral cells can survive and continue to function for at
>least ten years, despite an ongoing disease process, according to this
>case report.
>
>The patient received a unilateral fetal implant in 1989, with "gradual,
>major clinical improvement" over three years. L-dopa was withdrawn at 32
>months, and immunosuppression was stopped at 64 months. In the grafted
>putamen, fluorodopa uptake (which detects dopaminergic neurons by
>measuring uptake by presynaptic terminals) had normalized by three years
>with minor increases thereafter, while the untreated side showed gradual
>decline.
>
>In addition to fluorodopa scanning, the authors also performed
>11C-raclopride scanning, which labels dopamine receptors on host striatal
>neurons. While the untreated side showed increased raclopride binding
>(indicative of upregulation of receptors in the absence of dopaminergic
>innervation), the grafted side showed normal levels of binding. Following
>administration of amphetamine, which promotes dopamine release, the
>untreated side showed no decrease in raclopride binding, while the grafted
>side had a decrease in binding (due to competition from dopamine)
>equivalent to non-diseased controls.
>
>The authors conclude, "Our data in this patient suggest that, in the best
>cases, nigral transplants reinnervate the putamen extensively, to a level
>sufficient to normalize both 18F-dopa uptake and D2 receptor occupancy
>throughout the grafted putamen." They argue that the prolonged survival
>and function of the graft in the face of ongoing degeneration in the
>non-grafted side "suggests that PD is caused not by an endogenous
>neurotoxin, but rather, by an intrinsic deficit in nigral dopaminergic
>neurons."
>
>A News and Views commentary by Roger Baker and Stephen Dunnett accompanies
>the report.
>
>Copyright 2000 WE MOVE
>Editor: Richard Robinson ([log in to unmask])
>
>This service is provided free of charge to the Internet community,
>courtesy of WEMOVE.org. This document may be freely redistributed by
>email only in its unedited form. We encourage you to share it with your
>colleagues.
>
>E-MOVE archives, plus information on subscribing, are
>available at http://www.wemove.org/emove.
>To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to [log in to unmask],
>with "unsubscribe e-move" in the message body.
>
>E-MOVE is a service of WE MOVE (Worldwide Education and Awareness for
>Movement Disorders)
>204 West 84th Street
>New York, NY 10024
>
>TEL 800-437-MOV2
>TEL 212-241-8567
>FAX 212-987-7363
><http://www.wemove.org>


janet marie paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/
613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0