Cells from the brain of pigs implanted into the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease

New Zealand-based Living Cell Technologies to fight Parkinson’s disease is using the m of porcine tumor com rec of the plexus of vessels kowe. Vascular plexus The ventricle is a structure that ra produces fluid m zg-spinal. This, in turn, helps maintain the com nerve rks in health.

The therapy is still in the early stages of testing in, but the results are very promising. The condition of four os b, which rym 18 months ago was implanted with a com rki of m Of the pigs’ brains, has improved significantly.

Parkinson’s disease is a slowly progressive disease of the central nervous system. Intractable tremor, as the disease is also called, is caused by a deficiency of the neurotransmitter – dopamine. This is caused by the death of neuronal that produce the neurotransmitter. Dopamine helps control and coordinate movement, which is why Parkinson’s patients have such characteristic symptoms as tremor, rigidity and disturbances in balance. About 10 million suffer from Parkinson’s disease in people around the world.

The compounds produced by com rks transplanted from pigs are designed to intensively nourish existing and healthy cells rec m zg spinal neurons in Parkinson’s patients to slow or prevent further loss of them. The technique has previously passed the test in treating rat with a species-specific variant of Parkinson’s disease.

– We place in m of the recipient’s tumor a small neurochemical factory to promote the growth and repair of cells nerve records – explained Ken Taylor of Living Cell Technologies.

Com rki taken from pigs before being implanted into m zg in Parkinson’s patients were specially prepared in such a way b to support the release and penetration of the substances they produce, but at the same time be protected from the patient’s immune system. That’s why they were previously wrapped in a porous coating prepared from seaweed .

Each such shell has about p ł millimeter wide and contained about a thousand com rek taken from pigs. Individuals in the study were implanted with 40 such capsules on one side of the m zgu. New Zealand researchers noted an improvement in the condition of patients in an average of 14 points 199-point scale of severity of the symptom .

Scientists was concerned, however, that study participants reported improvements almost immediately after treatment. It is known that the com rki could not react as quickly, which is why the researchers suspect a placebo effect. On the other hand, however, the state of improvement has persisted for 18 months, which suggests that the results are correct after all. This obscurity is to be clarified by further, more extensive research.

Had it turned out that the method of the New Zealand scientists’ is effective, it could be extended to other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease. – The tactic taken by the New Zealand researchers is a good one, but the question is how competitive this solution in por n comparison with other cell therapies rkowe,” said Roger Barker of the University of Cambridge, who ry previously acted as a scientific advisor to the company, but was not involved in the current research.

Current therapies focus on transplanting into the m zg in Parkinson’s patients com dopamine-producing recs taken from aborted or aborted fetuses in or obtained from the cell stem recs. However, there are other therapies, admittedly Also experimental, but not requiring interference with the m zg. One of these was developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. It involves transforming those present in the m zgu com ry glial cells so that they produce dopamine. For more on this topic, see text: the Swedes have developed a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease.