Cell therapy in Parkinson's disease]

An approach for symptomatic Parkinson's disease (PD) therapy is fetal dopamine neuron transplantation. This approach remains the technical and ethical difficulties in obtaining sufficient and appropriate donor fetal brain tissue. In developments of stem cell biology, neural stem cells exist in the adult brain as well as embryo and have the capacity to regenerate and to give rise to the three cell lineages in the nervous system. Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs) are pluripotent cells, which give rise to all cells in the organism. Current findings suggest that stem cells but not fetal brain tissues may be suitable for cell replacement therapies in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. We will briefly review the current state of cell therapy, and will critically discuss the potential of stem cells for the treatment of PD.