Mick
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 Posted: 03/26/08 - 03:58 Post subject: Cloning treats Parkinson's disease in mice |
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US researchers have made to successfully treat animals with their own cloned cells and get them free from Parkinson’s symptoms for 11 weeks after the treatment. The success they had reached gives hope that therapeutic cloning may be used to treat people with the disease one day.
In Parkinson's disease, nerve cells that produce dopamine, a chemical responsible for the smooth and co-coordinated function of the body's muscles, get impaired. The purpose of the cell cloning is to develop the missing nerve cells in Parkinson's disease.
During the cloning procedure, the nucleus of a cell is inserted into an egg with the nucleus removed. The cell further transforms into an embryo from which stem cells can be harvested and used as a treatment.
There was no cell rejection in the study in the mice who received their own cloned cells and they showed great improvement regarding Parkinson’s signs. On the other hand, mice whose grafted neurons did not match the transplanted cells did not recover because the cells hadn’t survived. But when the grafted neurons did not genetically match the transplanted cells, the cells did not survive and the mice did not recover.
The therapy seems to work only if the cells originally came from the animal that was ill. In that case only, the cells were not rejected by the immune system.
Stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease is supposed to enable the replacement of the dead dopamine-producing nerve cells with new, healthy cells. This action is needed so that the brain could have sufficient dopamine supply. Their intention is to produce nerve cells which will survive after transplantation.
Researchers hope that stem cell therapy will offer cure for Parkinson's disease one day and enable people with the disease to live normal lives without the symptoms.
Still, much more research in both animals and humans is needed before treatment could be completed because the past studies followed the mice for only 11 weeks afterwards. |
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