Bilateral human fetal striatal transplantation in Huntington’s disease

Abstract

Transplantation of human fetal striatal cells is feasible and survival of transplanted cells was demonstrated. Patients with moderately advanced HD are at risk for SDH after transplantation surgery.

Cellular Therapy and Induced Neuronal Replacement for Huntington's Disease

“…In this study, 1 patient showed obvious clinical and radiological signs of rejection that was reversed by pharmacological immunosuppression. In this regard, the lack of transplant effectiveness in the Hauser et al [13] study may be associated with its limited, 6-month course of postoperative immunosuppression.…”

“…In another trial, 7 moderately advanced HD patients were given intrastriatal grafts consisting of microdissected lateral ganglionic eminence from 8 to 12 human fetal brains [13]. Microdissection was performed to reduce the contaminant tissue that resulted in the development of cysts and lesions in the Kopyov clinical trial [4].…”

“…Yet medial ganglionic eminence components are also important for both the proper development of striatal structures, and for their functional integration [25]. This may explain, at least in part, the lack of functional integration in the clinical trial reported by Hauser et al [13], in which the grafts only consisted of the most lateral part of the lateral ganglionic eminence [13,26].…”

Symptomatic Treatment of Huntington Disease

“…113 They were evaluated using UHDRS and a battery of neuropsychological tests, and underwent PET scanning. Three patients developed subdural hemorrhage, requiring evacuation.…”

Noninvasive method of immortalized neural stem-like cell transplantation in an experimental model of Huntington's disease

“…Neuropathological changes in HD are dominated by severe atrophy, neuronal cell loss, and an astrocytic reaction in the neostriatum (Vonsattel et al, 1985). To modify disease progression, fetal tissue transplantation in the striatum has been tried in humans (Hauser et al, 2002;Gaura et al, 2004). The transplantation of neural tissue improves functional and morphological outcomes, restores electrophysiological sensitivity to dopamine (Chen et al, 2002), and neuronal differentiation and fiber outgrowth from grafts in an animal model of HD (Armstrong et al, 2000).…”