An interesting letter to the editor: Stem Cell Transplantation for Parkinson Disease: Déjà Vu All Over Again? ?

[Farooqji]

academic.oup.com/neurosurge...

[Kevin51]

I have always been sceptical of stem cell replacement of DA neurons. Replacing neurons is of little use without their circuit connections

[jimcaster]

Although the author appears to be against stem cell therapy, this is what is most significant to me:

"At 2 yr, the patient's motor performance, as measured with the UPDRS (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale) motor subscale, was only modestly improved as was his 18F-fluorodopa positron emission tomography (PET), a surrogate marker for graft survival."

I'd settle for "modest improvement" after two years if the alternative is inevitable decline.

[Hidden in reply to jimcaster]

This is the guy that dropped his own 2m on it, that we have talked about before? Great to get an update. If they mean absolute improvement (which i think they do, rather than a slower deterioration tha expected), then yeah, pretty good?

Could explain his subjective review of it. If he was expecting to deteriorate but didnt, of course he is happy about it, right? Id be happy too lol.

Maybe the answer is multiple periodic grafts?

[Cagey84]

Thanks Iqbal, a very interesting article bringing a much needed dose of reality to stem cell research in PD