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--------------- Forwarded Story --------------- Headline: Human fetal cells treat Parkinson's Wire Service: UPn (UPI US & World) Date: Wed, Apr 26, 1995 BOSTON, April 26 (UPI) -- In a landmark study, doctors successfully transplanted human fetal cells into the brain of a man with Parkinson's disease, apparently clearing up the most debilitating effects of the disease, researchers said Wednesday. When the fetal cells were transplanted into the brain of a 59-year old retired Florida man, he was transformed from a wheelchair-bound invalid to nearly normal. He later died from an unrelated surgery, allowing researchers to perform an autospy that documented that the fetal cells had indeed been growing in the man's brain. Researchers theorize that the remarkable outcome was due to production of dopamine, a brain chemical that regulates motor function, by the growing implanted cells. "The data is unequivocal," said Jeffrey Kordower, the lead author of the report. "We proved that we can transplant cells into the human brain where they will survive and grow and produce dopamine." And that translates into a better quality of life for the patient, said Kordower, director of the Research Center for Brain Repair and professor of neurological sciences at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. "I can't tell you how excited we were. We believe we have achieved proof of principle. What we thought and theorized would happen, actually occurred," Kordower told United Press International. The patient's doctor, Dr. C. Warren Olanow, chairman of the department of neurology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York is a co-author of the study to be published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. Olanow said, "It is rare in medicine that a single case can make that case. But this is what has happened." Dr. Barry Hoffer, who wrote a supportive editorial in the journal, said, "This is a very important finding. This is really the first demonstration that human fetal tissue survived transplantation to another person's brain." Up to 1.5 million people in the United States have Parkinson's disease, said Diana Orr, a spokesperson for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation at Columbia University. The disease is the fourth most common neurodegenerative disease of the elderly, and is characterized by slowness and poverty of movement, muscular rigidity, resting tremor, and postural instability. (Written by Ed Susman, from West Palm Beach, Fla., edited by Larry Schuster, science and technology editor in Washington) Copyright 1995 The United Press International