Unilateral Transplantation of Human Fetal Mesencephalic Tissue into the Caudate Nucleus of Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is characterized by the loss of midbrain dopamine neurons that innervate the caudate and the putamen. Studies in animals suggest that fetal dopaminergic neurons can survive transplantation and restore neurologic function. This report compares the clinical results in four case patients with severe Parkinson's disease who underwent stereotaxic implantation of human fetal ventral mesencephalic tissue in one caudate nucleus with the results in a control group of similar subjects assigned at random to a one-year delay in surgery.