Olfactory mucosa is a potential source for autologous stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease

Wayne Murrell, Andrew Wetzig, Michael Donnellan, François Féron, Tom Burne, Adrian Meedeniya, James Kesby, John Bianco, Chris Perry, Peter Silburn, Alan Mackay-Sim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

139 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a complex disorder characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra in the brain. Stem cell transplantation is aimed at replacing dopaminergic neurons because the most successful drug therapies affect these neurons and their synaptic targets. We show here that neural progenitors can be grown from the olfactory organ of humans, including those with Parkinson's disease. These neural progenitors proliferated and generated dopaminergic cells in vitro. They also generated dopaminergic cells when transplanted into the brain and reduced the behavioral asymmetry induced by ablation of the dopaminergic neurons in the rat model of Parkinson's disease. Our results indicate that Parkinson's patients could provide their own source of neuronal progenitors for cell transplantation therapies and for direct investigation of the biology and treatments of Parkinson's disease.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2183-2192
Number of pages10
JournalStem Cells
Volume26
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Autologous cell therapy
  • Dopaminergic
  • Olfactory stem cell
  • Parkinson's disease

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