Word: substantia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Parkinson's disease, which causes trembling and muscular rigidity, stems from the still unexplained gradual death of most of the cells in a tiny, darkly pigmented area of the brain called the substantia nigra. The cells produce dopamine, a chemical that helps transmit impulses from the brain through the nervous system to the muscles. The Vanderbilt operations, adapting a technique that was developed in Sweden and first used successfully in Mexico last year, involve transplanting dopamine-producing tissue from one of the patient's two adrenal glands (located atop the kidneys) into the brain. Since the cells are the patient...
Whether or not the recoveries prove to be 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...
...transplant operation, in which tissue taken from one of the adrenal glands, located above the kidneys, is implanted into the brain. Doctors have known for years that the symptoms of parkinsonism result primarily from the death of cells in a darkly pigmented part of the brain known as the substantia nigra. This region serves as a production center for dopamine, a vital neurotransmitter that helps govern such voluntary actions as walking and speaking. As it happens, there is another site in the body, outside the brain, that produces substantial amounts of dopamine: the inner core of the adrenal glands...
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