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The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo)
October 26, 2001 Friday
SECTION: Pg. 3

HEADLINE: Team finds Parkinson's treatment for mice

SOURCE: Yomiuri

"   An Okayama University research team has succeeded in ameliorating
symptoms of
Parkinson's disease in mice suffering from the illness.

   The team, led by Isao Date and Shingo Tetsuro, employed stem cells to
demonstrate the ability to increase the number of dopamine-producing
cells.  The
research is expected to pave the way for a new therapy for Parkinson's,
for
which there has been no lasting, effective treatment thus far.

   Parkinson's disease, symptoms of which include tremors of the
extremities, is
caused by the degeneration of dopamine-producing cells in the the
mid-brain.

   The team worked on differentiating nerve stem cells. By combining
substances
that increase the number of cells and adding them to the stem cells, the
team
increased the number of dopaminergic neurons significantly.

   After injecting the substances directly into the brains of mice
suffering
from Parkinson's disease, symptoms of the disease were reduced, leading
the team
to believe that the number of new dopamine-producing cells in the brain
may have
increased.

   Currently, L-dopa, a drug that can be converted into dopamine in the
brain,
is used to treat the disease, but the effects are not lasting.

   In the United States, doctors have tried transplanting fetal cells,
but in
addition to some rejection problems, ethics questions have impeded
research.

   The team will continue in vitro research using human and monkey cells,
with
an eye to clinical application.

   The research results were released at an academic meeting of the Japan
Neurological Society on Oct. 24 in Okayama."


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