-- [ From: Donna Kipp * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
Man Gets Pig Tissue Transplant
BOSTON (AP) -- Pig tissue was transplanted intothe brain of a 59-
year-old man in a pioneeringattempt to reverse Parkinson's disease,
doctorssaid Wednesday.
The approach, if it works, will give doctors alimitless alternative
to human fetal tissue, nowthe only effective therapy for the
debilitatingillness.
``We have great hope this will work,'' said Dr.James M. Schumacher,
who performed the operation atLahey Hitchcock Clinic in suburban
Burlington.
Between 500,000 and 1.5 million Americans haveParkinson's disease,
which causes muscle rigidityand tremors and makes movement difficult.
Thedisease results from the death of specialized braincells that make
dopamine, a chemical the brain usesto communicate.
Medicine can temporarily ease symptoms but doesnot slow the
underlying course of the disease.
The Lahey doctors have received approval fromthe Food and Drug
Administration to conduct theexperimental surgery on five more patients
to testits safety.
The first patient, who underwent the operationon Tuesday, has had
Parkinson's for 27 years. He isseverely afflicted, though still able to
walk if hetakes large amounts of medicine.
Schumacher said it will take six to nine monthsto know if the
transplanted cells take over the jobof making dopamine and relieve the
man's symptoms.
He will need to take a drug that suppresses theimmune system to keep
his body from rejecting theforeign tissue.
At the University of Colorado, Dr. Curt Freedcalled the experiment
``very exciting,'' adding,``If it is effective, this will be a
wonderfuldevelopment.''
Freed's team, as well as others around thecountry, are experimenting
with transplanting braintissue from aborted fetuses into
Parkinson'spatients. However, the approach has several ethicaland
practical drawbacks, including the short supplyof tissue.
Abortion destroys fetuses. Technicians need tosift through the
remains of 10 abortions to findone useable piece of brain
containingdopamine-making cells. Furthermore, it takes threeor four
intact tissue specimens to perform atransplant into one side of a
Parkinson's patient'sbrain.
Results are often best if doctors transplanttissue into both sides
of the patient's brain. Thatmeans using the tissue from 60 to 80
abortedfetuses.
In the new approach, Schumacher used braintissue from five pig
embryos to replace cells onone side of the patient's brain.
The procedure, done under local anesthesia, tookfour hours. Doctors
used an extremely thin catheterto insert the pig tissue deep into the
man's brain.The patient wasn't identified.
In animal work leading to the operation,scientists showed that they
could transfer braintissue from one species to another with
relativeease. Dr. Ole Isacson of McLean Hospital inBelmont, Mass., has
moved brain tissue from rats tobaboons and collaborated with the Lahey
team.
Isacson said that under the microscope,dopamine-making cells from
pigs and people arestrikingly similar.
``The new thinking we developed is that thebrain is more adaptable
than we previouslythought,'' Isacson said. ``We can
structurallyreconnect the nervous system using cells in thisfashion.''
Cross-species transplants might someday be usedto treat other
degenerative brain disorders,including Huntington's disease and
Alzheimer'sdisease, Isacson said.
Copied from the PRODIGY(R) service 04/20/95 07:5
