DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN STRIATUM - IMPLICATIONS FOR FETAL STRIATAL TRANSPLANTATION IN THE TREATMENT OF HUNTINGTONS-DISEASE

Fetal neural transplantation has recently been demonstrated to amelior ate motor and other behavioral deficits in animal models of Huntington 's disease, and reconstruct many of the damaged striatal circuits. How ever, there has been significant variability in the histological appea rance of these grafts, most likely related to differences of the regio ns of dissection of the donor tissue. Selective dissection and transpl antation of the lateral ventricular eminence in rodents has resulted i n grafts consisting of primarily striatal-like tissue. This data, comb ined with data from our own and other laboratories has led to a descri ption of the development of the human striatum, with a particular emph asis on the relevance of human striatal development to the field of fe tal tissue transplantation for the treatment of Huntington's disease. If the goal of transplantation is to graft GABAergic striatal projecti on neurons, it is our impression that optimal grafting results will oc cur when transplants are derived from the lateral ventricular eminence and the lateral aspect of the body of the ventricular eminence anteri or to the foramen of Monro. Optimal results are likely to occur when d onor ages range from Stage 19 to 23, with possible graft success when donor age extends to as late as postovulatory week 22.