The results of work with fetal brain transplants from
three different research groups (Stockholm, Yale, Colorado) were
published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this
year. The results were generally positive, in that there was
improvement in disease symptoms (or a reduction in the dose of
L-DOPA) for the transplant recipients. The best results were
in the young patients who had chemically-induced Parkinson's
disease from taking the neurotoxin MPTP. This parallels the
results from studies on non-human primates where the young, lesioned
monkeys did well after transplantation.
The current status is that there are many groups who will no
begin to do fetal transplants since the U.S. government has eliminated
restrictions on fetal tissue research. This research is currently
open to funding by the N.I.H., but I do not believe that any group has
been funded yet, since there has not been enough time between the
relaxation of restrictions and the present to allow for the review
process to be completed.
Most groups feel that the most unethical situation is to allow
fetal tissue from voluntary abortions to be wasted, rather than used
to alleviate human suffering.
F.Y.I., I am a researcher in P.D. who is developing immortalized
cell lines to be used rather than fetal tissue, but I believe that our
goal is a long way off.
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Herbert M. Geller e-mail:[log in to unmask]
Department of Pharmacology Phone:(908) 235-4084
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Fax:(908) 235-4073
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854 USA
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