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March 17, 1998 MIAMI (Reuters) -- Researchers at the University of South Florida said on Tuesday they had received federal approval for a major study of whether fetal pig cells can be used to treat people suffering from Parkinson's disease. The Tampa-based university was chosen as the lead center for the first nationwide double-blind study evaluating the treatment for the disease, a serious and incurable brain illness that affects as many as 1 million Americans. The other clinical centers that will participate are Emory University, Columbia University and Boston Medical Center. Doctors in Boston previously reported some improvement in a study of 12 patients treated on one side of their brains with the fetal pig cells. The new study will involve 36 patients, use four times as many of the cells, and patients will be treated on both sides of their brains, said Dr. Robert Hauser, director of the Movement Disorder Center at the Tampa-based university. The patients will not know whether they were receiving the pig cells or a placebo, he said. "We're ready to take the next step and the next step essentially is going from that open label study, which is prone to the placebo effect," Hauser said. "Now we're going to a double blind study ... This will be the first double-blind study of porcine cells in Parkinson's disease." Parkinson's disease is caused by degeneration of or damage to nerve cells in the brain that stops production of dopamine, an important message-carrying chemical linked with movement. Sufferers develop tremors and other problems associated with movement. Hauser said the dopamine drug treatment available for the disease is usually effective for part of each day for a limited number of years, typically four to six. But he said patients develop sensitivity to the drug that leaves them with an involuntary twisting condition known as dyskinesia. The drug also becomes effective for a smaller portion of each day as time passes. Researchers at the University of South Florida have had moderate success treating patients with brain cells taken from aborted human fetuses. But those cells are difficult to obtain and controversial -- the treatment is opposed by opponents of abortion rights. Hauser said the school was continuing that research, but hoped that pig cells would offer a treatment without the scarcity and controversy. "If there can be a source of cell that's commercially available, it could be manufactured ... It could be made widely available across the country," he said. Hauser said he expected it would take about nine months to recruit patients, and then another 18 months following surgery to evaluate them. "So figure in about 2-1/2 years, we'll have a real answer," he said. The research is sponsored by Diacrin/Genzyme LLC, a pharmaceutical firm.