Role of Neural Stem Cells in Parkinson's Disease

Human fetal mesencephalic tissue can be successfully used in dopamine (DA) cell replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease (PD), nevertheless, further advances have been impeded due to limited tissue availability. Stem cell-based approaches have received much hype as potential treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, but have shown poor cell survival. The brains of three patients with Parkinson's disease who had undergone transplants of fetal tissue were examined postmortem and it was observed that some transplanted cells contained clumps of protein containing alpha-synuclein. Inducible pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from somatic cells and human embryonic stem cells, represent a novel renewable source of tissue precursors and therapeutic safety necessitate much more in-depth research before the initiation of human clinical trials.