Brain, Vol. 122, No. 9, 1791-1792,
September 1999
© 1999 Oxford University Press
Book reviews |
CELL TRANSPLANTATION FOR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS.
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Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF, UK
The potential goals for therapeutic use of cell transplantation in neurological disorders are ambitious. The subtitle of this book is `Toward Reconstruction of the Human Nervous System'. Most attractive may be the possibility of nigral grafts in Parkinson's disease providing reinnervation and replacement of the discrete group of cells that account for this disease. Similarly, specific striatal grafts may reconstruct cortico-striato-pallidal circuits in animal models of Huntington's disease. Indirect effects of cell transplantation include the production of trophic factors to stimulate regeneration, as with adrenal grafts, and hippocampal or cortical grafts to prevent degeneration. Even less direct, but possibly more controllable forms of cell transplantation include the manufacture of trophic and other pharmacological secreting cells, in polymers or encapsulated. A final consideration in clinical cell neurotransplantation is the possible nonspecific effect of the surgical procedure itself, including negative lesion effects of surgery, positive stimulatory effects of surgery and placebo effects.
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