Study On Cell Transplantation As The Treatment For Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a well-known neuro-degenerative disease characterized by tremor, muscular rigidity and bradykinesia, however the aetiology is still unknown. Pathological analysis demonstrates that in substantia nigra and in nigrostriatal pathway there are degenerative changes including the loss of dopamine in striatums, the loss of dopaminergic neurons (DNs) in substantia nigra, the presence of intraneural Lewy bodies, etc. Therefore, implantation with healthy dopaminergic cells may be an ideal therapy. In this study, embryonic tissue, mesencephalic precursors and stem cells have been experimentally transplanted, respectively, to observe the potential therapeutic effect.Part 1 Establishment of rat models of Parkinson's disease and transplantation with cells from embryonic E14 ventral mesencephalonsObjective: To establish good rat models of PD and transplant cells from embryonic E14 ventral mesencephalons. Methods: 6-OHDA was stereotacticly injected into medial forebrain bundles on the right sides of 44 rats. After 6 weeks, apomorphine induced rotation test and amphetamine induced rotation test were performed to check the quality of rat models. Ventral mesencephalic cells from E14 rat embryos were transplanted into the right striatums in 4 qualified rat models (4+105cells/model). Rotation tests were also done routinely to observe the functional recovery. Results: Totally 44 rat models were made. After 6 weeks, 35 (79.55%) of them were proved to be qualified by apomorphine induced rotation test; 36 (81.82%) were proved to be qualified by amphetamine induced rotation test; 29 (65.91%) were proved to be qualified by two kinds of rotation tests; only 2 (4.55%) were proved to be unqualified by two lands of rotation tests. Three pregnant rats were dissected a nd 1+107 ventral m esencephalic cells w ere o btained, t he v iability o f w hich was 96%. There was significant change (P<0.05) among the rotation results obtained in the 11th weeks, the 15th weeks and the 17th weeks post-operatively. Conclusions: Good rat models of PD can be made satisfactorily by means of injection with 6-OHDA into rat medial forebrain bundles. The grafted ventral mesencephalic cells from E14 rat embryos can result in apparent functional recovery and, in other words, good therapeutic effect. All these models and the techniques made good preparation for the following research work.