Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

Symposium V:
3) Intracerebral grafting of cell line or patient-derived neural stem cells for the treatment of neurological disorders

Isao Date, M.D. Tetsuro Shingo, M.D. and Takashi Ohmoto, M.D.

Department of Neurological Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry

Due to the development of molecular biology techniques, several types of neurotransmitter or neurotrophic factor secreting cell line can be established. These cell lines were grafted into the brain of animal models of Parkinson's disease and cerebral ischemia after encapsulating into the hollow fiber consisted of semipermeable membrane. Immunological reaction and tumor formation were prevented and functional effects were observed histologically, chemically and behaviorally. Current issues regarding encapsulated cell grafting are: delivery of neurotransmitter and neurotrophic factor simultaneously from one capsule, usage of human-derived cell lines and control of secretion from outside.
There are two possible approaches regarding the usage of patient's own neural stem cells for regenerative therapy. Neural stem cells are collected from the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle and these cells are differentiated into dopaminergic neurons using tyrosine hydroxylase induction cocktail (TH cocktail). Then, these neurons are grafted into the striatum of the patient. Another method is to inject TH cocktail into the patient's striatum in order to induce differentiation of dopaminergic neurons from the neural stem cells in vivo.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 42: 1144|1146, 2002)
key words: neural transplantation, cell line, Parkinson's disease, neural stem cell

(Received: 30-May-02)