Neural stem cells for Parkinson's disease: To protect and repair
- Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, University of South Florida College of Medicine, MDC 78, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612
“Stem cells” and “Parkinson's disease” are four words that signify some of the most important translational research in neuroscience. The imagination of scientists has been captured by the notion that there exists a single “stem” cell, a mother or queen of all cells, with the ability to self-renew and to generate all other cells in an organism. In other words, stem cells are capable of generating various committed progenitor cells and ultimately differentiating into mature cells. Although many investigators have found numerous multipotent and pluripotent cell lines from a variety of sources, it is absolutely critical that we begin to develop the clinical technology to actually use those cells in disease. For Parkinson's disease, it will take significant experimental studies in primate models to demonstrate safety and efficacy prior to human clinical trials.
Ten years ago, Tanja Zigova and I wrote a commentary (1) on some of the first successful demonstrations of neural stem cells by Evan Snyder, Ron McKay, and their respective groups. At that time, the excitement was based on finding neural stem cells from fetal brains for use in neuronal replacement. In the past few years, however, research on using stem cells for brain repair has undergone a transformation. Early hypotheses calling for directly replacing damaged cells with stem cells may not be the …
*E-mail: psanberg{at}health.usf.edu
