Application Of Neural Stem Cell For Treatment Of Parkinson’s Disease In MPTP Mouse Model

Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease, usually onset in the sixth decade of life. It is estimated that2%of the aged population in major cities of China’s can be diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, a rate similar to developed countries. The major clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease include resting tremor, muscle rigidity, bradykinesia, postural instability, with severe loss of life quality. Compared to other neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s disease has a well established strategy for medical treatment and a set of surgical management called deep brain stimulation, to improve symptoms, especially in the short term. But none of the methods could reverse the pathology of neural degeneration. Medical treatment is also associated with some severe long-term side effects like Tardive dyskinesia. Since1980s, there has been a growing passion in the applying advances in stem cell and regenerative medicine on the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. It is believed the basic pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease is reduced dopamine level in the Nigrostriatal pathway. And scientists tried using human embryonic dopaminergic tissue and dopaminergic stem cells combined with gene engineering, to re-establish the expression of dopamine in the diseased brain. This strategy has received some encouragements in animal experiements and some clinical trials have also been started. However, due to the limited source of embryonic tissue and stem cells, as well as the ethical considerations, more extensive research and development in this field have to rely on new sources like mesenchymal stem cells, neural stem cells. Here, we use in vitro cultured adult human neural stem cells transplanted into the striatum of MPTP-induced mouse model of Parkinson’s disease, to investigate the survival of these transplanted human neural stem cells, their growth and differentiation, interaction with the host micro-environment and neural circuit, and finally, their impact on the functional improvements of these diseased animals. Along the line, this study also established a set of standard track for the lab to apply human neural stems in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in mice.