 |
 |
C Kyodo News Service OKAYAMA, Japan, June 2 (Kyodo) Doctors at Okay ama University in western Japan have decided to apply in July for permission to performa new type of operation for Parkinson's disease involving implanting acapsule containing rat cells, university officials said Monday. The doctors, led by Takashi Omoto, professor of cerebral nerve surgery at the Medical School at Okayama University, are planning to implant in a patient's brain a capsule filled with rat cells which produces dopamine, an amino acid that affects muscular coordination. The medicaltearn willapply to the university's ethics committee for permission forthe world's fffst such operation, the officials said. Parkinson's disease, a neurological condition characteri~d by trembling, is estimated to affect one in every 2,000 people in Japan. The usual treatment is medication. Ornoto's group believes implanting the capsule will minimize the risk ofrejection symptoms and will prove better than medication, which has the disadvantages of its effectiveness diminishing overtime and side effects such as vomiting, the officials said. In the operation, a capsule ~.l millimeter in diameter and 7 mm long, will be implanted in the patient's brain. In experiments with a mouse and a monkey, the rat cells were still producing dopamine one month afier the implantation ofthe capsule, the officials said.