ABSTRACT
Background. Treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD) has been attempted by others by transplanting either the patient's own adrenal medullary tissue or fetal substantia nigra into caudate or putamen areas. However, the difficulties inherent in using the patient's own adrenal gland, or the difficulty in obtaining human fetal tissue, has generated the need to find alternative methods. Methods. We report here of an alternative to both procedures by using as transplant metrial cultured human adrenal chromaffin cells differentiated into neuron-like cells by extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF MF). Results. The results of this study show that human differentiated chromaffin cells can be grafted into the caudate nucleus of a PD patient, generating substantial clinical improvement, as measured by the unified Rating Scale for PD, which correlated with glucose metabolism and D2 DA receptor increases as seen in a PET scan, while allowing a 70 percent de crease in L-Dopa medication. Discussion. This is the first preliminary report showing that transplants of cultured differentiates neuron-like cells can be successfully used to treat a PD patient
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Middle Aged , Adrenal Medulla/cytology , Antiparkinson Agents/administration & dosage , Carbidopa/therapeutic use , Cells, Cultured/transplantation , Cerebrum/metabolism , Chromaffin Cells , Parkinson Disease/surgery , Dopamine/metabolism , Glucose/metabolism , Levodopa/administration & dosage , Levodopa/therapeutic use , Magnetics , Parkinson Disease , Parkinson Disease/therapy , Receptors, Dopamine , Tomography, Emission-Computed , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Levels of DARP in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients having a wide variety of nerulogical disorders were determined. Neurological disorders were categorized as degenrative, demyelinating, epilepsy, trauma, hydrocephalia, inflammatory, A-V malformation, CNS neoplasia, parasitic and stroke. DARP levels were determined by an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) using monoclonal anti-DARP antibodies. A synthetic peptide corresponding to the first 36 aa of the N-terminal of DARP was used as standard. A total of 7 non-neurological patients and 73 patients with neurological disorders were tested. The relative concentrations of DARP decreased in patients with Parkinson's diseases vs. patients with non-neurological diseases and increased in other neuropathologies such as demyelinating, hydrocephalia and A-V malformations. Data obtained suggest that changes in the percentage and concentration of DARP may correlate with certain neurological disorders, showing particularly low levels in Parkinson's disease patients