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Rewiring brain connections Lab-grown neurons may treat Parkinson's=20 Researchers have long dreamed of treating diseases by replacing damaged = tissues with healthy cells grown in the laboratory. But although = scientists had grown nerve cells in a petri dish, the complex cells = failed to interact as they do in the human brain.=20 Now researchers from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders = and Stroke appear to have made the connection, growing neuron cells that = produce the vital chemical messenger dopamine when injected into the = brains of rats. The rats lacked dopamine-producing neurons, a situation = akin to the degenerative neurological disease of Parkinson's, which = affects half a million people in the United States. Most of the treated = rats showed a 75 percent improvement in motor function after three = months. If the results, to be published in the upcoming Nature = Neuroscience, can be extended to humans, doctors may be able to treat = neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's by growing neurons in = the lab.=20 Researchers have experimented with replacing damaged neurons in = Parkinson's victims, but the therapy is controversial because each = procedure requires tissue from three to five aborted human fetuses. The = new method might make it possible to grow many neurons from only a few = human fetal cells. If all goes well, the procedure may be in human = clinical trials in the next two to three years.--Ellen F. Licking=20