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> Although researchers have known for nearly two
> decades that grafting dopamine-producing cells into
> the brain can relieve Parkinson-like symptoms in
> animals, it was not until 1986 that Dr. Ignacio
> Navarro Madrazo, now at the Instituto Mexicano
> del Seguro Social in Mexico City, first performed
> the procedure in humans.  Madrazo grafted
> dopamine-producing cells from the Parkinson
> patients' adrenal gland, a walnut-sized organ above
> the kidney, into the brains of the patients and
> observed a distinct improvement in symptoms.
> Madrazo's first patient was Joseluis Meza, then a
> 33-year-old Mexico City resident who could not
> speak clearly, walk, dress, bathe, or feed himself
> without help.  After the surgery, Meza recovered all
> those abilities--to the point where he could begin
> working again and play soccer with his 5-year-old
> son, Mario.
> Seven years later, Madrazo said, Meza had
> deteriorated somewhat, but he is still able to take
> care of himself and "he is still much better than he
> was before the surgery."
> Madrazo has performed 90 adrenal transplants, and
> American researchers have performed at least
> another 120, according to Dr. Roy A. E. Bakay of
> Emory University, who maintains a registry of
> brain grafts.
> Madrazo's results with adrenal grafts are probably
> typical of the several hundred performed
> throughout the rest of the world, experts agree.
> Overall, "two-thirds of the patients had beneficial
> effects" from the surgery, Madrazo said at a recent
> symposium sponsored by Good Samaritan.  But
> the procedure has now largely been rendered
> obsolete by fetal transplants, and results of his
> limited studies with fetal tissues have been even
> better, Madrazo said.
> "Fetal tissue has a very, very clear beneficial effect,"
> he said.  Because abortion is illegal in Mexico,
> Madrazo can treat Parkinson's patients only with
> fetal tissue obtained in spontaneous abortions.  He
> has thus treated only four patients with fetal tissue.
>
> Worldwide data on fetal tissue grafts is sparse
> because many researchers are slow in reporting
> their data to the registry, Bakay said.  But the
> statistics are more readily available in the United
> States.  In addition to Good Samaritan's 15 patients,
> Yale's Redmond has done 15, Dr. Curt Freed of the
> University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver
> has done 16 and Dr. Warren Olanow of the
> University of South Florida has performed four.
> Dr. Robert Iacono of the Loma Linda Medical
> Center has also performed fetal tissue grafts on 14
> patients, though the surgeries were conducted in
> Hong Kong and China.
> So far, the results have been dramatic, according to
> the surgeons.  "These patients were severe before
> we stared on them," Jacques said.  "They were very
> sick, most of them were wheelchair-bound.  Now
> most are quite a bit better."
> In the absence of effective new drugs or other
> treatments, Feed said, "only transplants are likely to
> cure Parkinson's disease . . . or make a difference"
> in the patients' lives.  With the transplants, said Dr.
> John R. Sladek, Jr. of the University of Chicago
> Medical School, "We have the opportunity to help
> truly sick people."
>
>
 
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