[ol'cs]

Ever since cell transplants were deemed as "ineffective and dangerous",there has been a "hold" on new research into them. This was the result of poor results, which put up a red light for the formation of tetratomas in various parts of the brain even when stereotactic surgery implanted fetal cells were used . Well, it turns out that these transplants were "dirty" as a whole host of stem cells proliferated in the brains of subjects who underwent the procedure. I have harped on this for at least 7 years. WE are not using the correct cells, and i don't know who is working on fixing this.
i had great hope that the "proper" cells could be made. by cloning of ones own biopsied material from the nigral area and that this method could "clean up" the type of cells that should proliferate and offer regrowth of new dopaminergic cells, specifically. i still strongly believe that bioengineering of cells which can ONLY reproduce into dopaminergic neurons CAN BE DONE. Why has this route to a cure for PD been forsaken. it seems so logical. if they can make skin grafts that can be grown on a substrate and then use them successfully in burn victims, then it is only a matter of time before "synthetic substantia nigra cells can be produced and harvested for an implant that will be well behaved, and do what we want them to do. iT seems so simple, no fetuses involved, so no questions of ethics. Why have we been dragging our feet (nice pun ha!) so long on this issue?

[johnt]

Dated November 2010 from the University of Cambridge see

http://www.research-horizons.cam.ac....rward--p-.aspx

"A new multicentre, international research programme – TRANSEURO – aims to refine cell transplantation techniques for replacing the lost cells that lie at the heart of Parkinson’s disease (PD)."

"Repairing the neural circuits has long been an aim of clinical neuroscientists like Dr Roger Barker, who leads the new programme and is based at Cambridge’s Centre for Brain Repair. But neural transplantation in PD has had something of a roller coaster history, as he explains: ‘Close to 100 patients have received cell transplants as part of well-conducted clinical trials worldwide in the past two decades. In some, the transplanted cells survive, grow and significant clinical improvements can be seen for as many as 15 years post-transplant. Yet, in others, the therapy not only fails, but the patient develops side effects.’"

John