janet paterson wrote:
> i'm sure that this article is a serious one
> but since the abstract is not at pubmed
> just the title of the article,
> auto-transplantation?
> do-it-yourself brain surgery?
> implant your car battery into your stn unit?
> a step further? ... ?
> Autotransplantation for Parkinson's disease goes a step further.
It sounds funny, but there's a serious message: "auto-" is medical
jargon for "own-" or "self-", and in this context refers to using the
patient's own cells, rather than those from a fetus or other donor,
for the transplant. This avoids the need for immune suppression to
protect the graft from attack by the host. Problem is, patient's'
brain cells are hard to get at, and anyway those are the ones that
don't work. Years ago they tried to transplant the patient's adrenal
tissue, which also makes dopamine, but that didn't work, so now
they are trying to transplant nerve cells from some accessible part
of the patient, after converting them to make dopamine like the ones
that were lost in PD.
Janet's other message, about destruction ("ablation") of a bit of
brain versus stimulating it via a wire for the same effect, calls for
another comment: Either way, the procedure involves poking a hard, sharp
metal instrument through several inches of brain, in order to get at the
precise site that needs to be treated, and there is always the risk of
inadvertent damage, for example puncturing a major blood vessel. The
risk is admittedly small (I've read an estimate of 1%-3%), but the
penalty may be severe. That's why either type of surgery, despite the
glowing success stories, is normally reserved as a "last resort" for
when the patient's condition is intolerable and all other therapy has
failed. Cheers,
Joe
--
J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694
3527 Cody Road
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013
