Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan report significant improvement in monkeys with Parkinson's disease after receiving stem cell transplants.
A new study, published Aug. 30 in Nature, involved researchers at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, or CiRA, at Kyoto University, who transplanted neurons prepared from human iPS cells into monkeys with Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease degenerates a specific type of cells in the brain known as dopaminergic, or DA, neurons. When symptoms of Parkinson's first appear, a patient will have already lost more than half of their DA neurons.
"Our research has shown that DA neurons made from iPS cells are just as good as DA neurons made from fetal midbrain," Professor Jun Takahashi, a neurosurgeon specializing in Parkinson's disease, said in a press release. "Because iPS cells are easy to obtain, we can standardize them to only use the best iPS cells for therapy."
Related
Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, can be made from blood or skin and used to make DA neurons.
Researchers transplanted iPS cells into the brains of monkeys with Parkinson's disease.
"We made DA neurons from different iPS cells lines. Some were made with iPS cells from healthy donors. Others were made from Parkinson's disease patients," Tetsuhiro Kikuchi, a neurosurgeon who works in the Takahashi lab, said adding that the differentiation method used to convert iPS cells into neurons is suitable for clinical trials.
Researchers found that the quality of cells transplanted was more important than the number of iPS cells.
"Each animal received cells prepared from a different iPS cell donor. We found the quality of donor cells had a large effect on the DA neuron survival," Kikuchi said.
The study showed that monkeys who received the iPS cells showed significant improvement over two years in Parkinson's symptoms. The research is the final step before the first iPS cell-based therapy can be tested on humans with neurodegenerative diseases.
"This study is our answer to bring iPS cells to clinical settings," said Takahashi.
