Neural transplantation for Parkinson's disease

1. Neural transplantation is one promising approach for the treatment of Pa rkinson's disease. Fetal substantia nigra cells are a good source of dopami ne, but in order to avoid ethical and immunological problems, adrenal medul lary chromaffin cells have been investigated as an alternative sourer. 2. Grafted adrenal medullary chromaffin cells can provide dopamine as well as several neurotrophic factors that affect dopaminergic neurons in the bra in. 3. We review experimental studies for application of neural transplantation techniques in Parkinson's disease, including immunological studies, cryopr eservation, microvasculature, donor tissue, and direct gene delivery studie s performed in our laboratory. Our clinical experience and new approach inv olving a polymer-encapsulated cell grafting procedure are also described.