Parkinson's sufferer hails new implant procedure
Controversial use of fetal cells has real benefits for patients under
60, research shows
April 22, 1999
CAROLYN ABRAHAM -- Medical Reporter
Lynda McKenzie had tissue from four aborted fetuses injected into her
brain last December.
She flew to Colorado for the chance to have it done, and to hear her now
-- to see the exuberance in the blue of her eyes -- it goes without
saying that she would have
flown anywhere.
The 46-year-old who once owned a craft shop in Milton, Ont., was
diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 12 years ago and is now proof that
the controversial procedure of
implanting fetal cells can help patients under age 60 regain their motor
skills. But Ms. McKenzie is also a sign that the ethical debate about
the surgical use of
aborted embryos is about to heat up.
U.S. researchers who spent five years and $5.7-million (U.S.)
investigating the effectiveness of fetal-cell implants on Parkinson's
patients presented their much-awaited findings in Toronto yesterday to a
meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Although the results were mixed, with no benefits experienced by
patients over 60, the findings are still expected to go some distance in
untangling the procedure from the controversies of abortion politics.
As Ms. McKenzie put it: "I can roll over in bed at night without waking
my husband up to do it. I can walk to the mall up the street and around
the corner by myself. That's remarkable."
While the search continues to find other sources of fetal cells for
implants -- from pigs to those grown in Petri dishes -- the University
of Colorado neuroscientist who
led the study makes no apologies for his work.
"This is [fetal] tissue that is otherwise thrown away," Dr. Curt Freed
said. The fact that the tissue can alleviate the burden of a crippling
disease, "makes this a fairly easy choice.
I would hope that society would continue to support this research."
Dr. Freed used 80 embryos to perform brain implants on 20 patients.
Abortion opponents have long argued the surgery would create a demand
for fetal tissue, perhaps even encourage more abortions for a procedure
that, until now, had not been medically proven to offer any benefit.
Dr. Freed and colleagues found that the younger patients showed
"significant improvement" in movement after receiving the implants. But
patients older than 60 --
those most often struck by Parkinson's -- showed no significant
improvement. The older patients fared as well as patients who had a fake
implant or so-called "sham
surgery" as part of the placebo-control group.
Parkinson's disease, which affects more than 80,000 Canadians, is a
condition with an unknown cause and no known cure. It begins with the
death of cells in the base of the brain that make and store dopamine, a
crucial chemical neurotransmitter that signals the part of the brain
that controls body movements.
As the cells die and dopamine production stops, patients begin losing
their motor skills and can eventually become immobile.
The first implant was done in the United States in 1988. In the early
1990s, a Halifax hospital withstood fierce protests from abortion
opponents to be the first and only
institution in Canada to try the experimental surgery. Yet there had
never been clear evidence that the remarkable benefits sometimes
reported after fetal-cell implants
were anything more than the placebo effect.
So in 1993, after the U.S. lifted a ban on research involving fetal
tissue, Dr. Freed began the study.
Copyright © 1999 The Globe and Mail
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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