Transplant of cultured neuron-like differentiated chromaffin cells in a Parkinson's disease patient. A preliminary report

Background. Treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD) has been attempted by oth ers by transplanting either the patient's own adrenal medullary tissue or f etal substantia nigra into caudate or putamen areas. However, the difficult ies inherent in using the patient's own adrenal gland, or the difficulty in obtaining human fetal tissue, has generated the need to find alternative m ethods. Methods. We report here of an alternative to both procedures by using as tr ansplant material cultured human adrenal chromaffin cells differentiated in to neuron-like cells by extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF MF). Results. The results of this study show that human differentiated chromaffi n cells can be grafted into the caudate nucleus of a PD patient, generating substantial clinical improve ment, as measured by the Unified Rating Scale for PD, which correlated with glucose metabolism and D-2 DA receptor incre ases as seen in a PET scan, while allowing a 70% decrease in L-Dopa medicat ion. Discussion. This is the first preliminary report showing that transplants o f cultured differentiated neuron-like cells can be successfully used to tre at a PD patient. (C) 1999 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.