ADRENAL-MEDULLA IN NEURAL GRAFTING AND NEURAL PLASTICITY

The recent history of neural transplantation using the adrenal medulla parallels an evolution in our thinking about neural grafting as a the rapeutic approach to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinso n's disease. Initially, neural grafting was an approach to study devel opment and regeneration. With the discovery that adrenal chromaffin ce ll grafts would ameliorate some of the motor deficits associated with the loss of striatal dopamine, adrenal grafts were used to provide dop amine to the dopamine-depleted striatum. However, subsequent studies s howed poor chromaffin cell survival unless trophic factors were presen t at the site of transplantation. These experiments lead to the apprec iation of the complex interactions between neurotrophic factors, infla mmatory cytokines, the grafted tissue, and the host brain's response. Thus, we find ourselves again using neural transplantation as an appro ach to help us better understand central nervous system plasticity and the features this plasticity shares in common with development and re generation. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.