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Maryse Schild and I both questioned how well embryonic stem cells would work long term for PD if transplanted; I think the cause of PD must be understood and treated or we'll be like Dennis Turner. I emailed my former student, Dr. Charleen Chu, PD researcher at U of Pittsburg and she sent me an article which supports Maryse's and my doubts and unfortunately it is discouraging. "Assessing fetal nerve cell grafts in Parkinson's disease", Nature Medicine Volume 14 Number 5 May 2008: "three independent laboratories report their autopsy-controlled findings in a total of eight subjects after such surgery......these studies provide insights into the extent to which pathogenic factors in the host can affect transplanted nerve cells and transplant recipients. The long term clinical benefits in six individuals who survived 9-16 years after surgery proved to be limited, and three of them showed brain pathology typical of Parkinson's disease at autopsy...........the premise underlying the approach - that PD is primarily a disorder of the nigrostriatal system - is currently under revision." The entire article is a reminder of how complicated this disease is. But the outlook is good for spinal cord injuries - there is injury but no disease. Also embryonic stem cell research is necessary to understand disease processes, I understand. Again today I encountered on line the "news" of the Turner "breakthrough", just in time to obstruct ESCR. Dr. Levesque's office has not responded to my email, Phase II was never approved by the FDA well past 2004, the end of Turner's five year reprieve, the original experiment in 1999 was done under cover of DBS (Levesque says Turner was never turned on) - now, why go through an ordeal like DBS and not learn how it worked?,,, Dennis Turner for some inexplicable reason is still silent as he was in 2007 when Senator Sam Brownback touted his case as an Adult Stem Cell cure on the floor of the US Senate. We in the Parkinson community deserve the truth from researchers, doctors, legislators, and fellow Parkies. IMHO the Levesque experiment is important because we learned that the cause of our disease must be understood, not that it was a success for adult stem cells. Misrepresentations don't help anyone and we will eventually know won't we? Ray Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn