Word: fetal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...surgery that preceded Follensbee's partial recovery -- the transplanting of tissue from one of her adrenal glands to her brain -- may be only a prelude to even more remarkable developments. Several scientists at the Rochester meeting, citing promising research on animals, predicted that human fetal tissue would eventually be implanted in brains not only to treat Parkinson's but Huntington's and Alzheimer's diseases as well as other brain disorders. Given the rapid surgical advances recently, there is no question that the rush is on to try adrenal-cell implants to correct Parkinson's, a neural disorder that afflicts...
...long lasting, University of Rochester Neurobiologist John Sladek and Yale Psychiatrist Eugene Redmond see a braver new world ahead. The two scientists reported reversing the effects of Parkinson's in adult African green monkeys by implanting cells from the substantia nigra of monkey fetuses, and believe that fetal brain grafts offer a better bet for Parkinson's patients. Vanderbilt researchers, using fetal nerve-tissue implants in experiments with rats, also reported progress in reducing chemically induced symptoms of Huntington's disease, a fatal genetic brain disorder. Others expressed hope that once the underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease are determined...
Despite some optimistic statements, most scientists are aware that ethical dilemmas as well as technical difficulties stand in the way of successful fetal-cell therapy. Many church leaders and right-to-life advocates oppose the use of tissue from artificially aborted fetuses. And doctors worry about using tissue from spontaneously aborted fetuses, which often have serious genetic defects. In any event, Sladek believes animal research on fetal tissue should continue for several more years before fetal-cell transplants are even attempted in humans. He and Redmond plan to treat monkeys and observe them for two to five years in order...
Another Rochester neuroscientist, Timothy Collier, has already begun looking into freezing and storing fetal brain tissue for use in implants. He reported last week that he had successfully transplanted frozen-and-revived fetal neural tissue in both rats and monkeys. The next step: implanting the thawed tissue into monkeys afflicted with Parkinson's. The ultimate aim is to create neural-tissue banks that surgeons will be able to draw on for future operations...
Animal research may help answer some basic physiological questions about fetal brain implants. Will the brains of Parkinson's victims, most of whom are middle-aged or elderly, integrate with fetal tissue? Could a virus that found its way into the brain, which is normally unaffected by the immune system, accidentally set off an abnormal immune response that would destroy the graft? And even without viral intervention, would the foreign fetal cells be rejected? Moreover, surgeons will have to know precisely how much tissue from what stage of development should be used in each transplant. Taking the tissue too early...