NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING FOLLOWING FETAL STRIATAL TRANSPLANTATION IN HUNTINGTONS-CHOREA - 3 CASE PRESENTATIONS

Neurotransplantation has been proposed as a potential treatment for th e neurodegenerative disorder of Huntington's disease (HD), which curre ntly has no effective therapy, While patients with Parkinson's disease have received neurotransplantation, until recently no HD patients hav e undergone transplantation for HD with standardized evaluations of th eir progress following surgery, The current report presents the cognit ive changes in three patients with HD who underwent bilateral transpla ntation of human fetal striatal tissue. As part of the pre- and postsu rgical evaluation, all three patients were administered a neuropsychol ogical battery sensitive to the cognitive effects of HD within 2 mo pr ior to surgery and at 4-6 mo following transplantation. Four to 6 mo s ubsequent to surgery, all patients demonstrated increased scores on so me measures of cognitive functioning. However, the pattern of changes was not uniform across subjects. These findings suggest that fetal str iatal transplantation may improve some of the cognitive symptoms assoc iated with HD in the three reported patients. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc e Inc.