Fetal Pig Neural Cells as a Restorative Therapy for Neurodegenerative Disease

Abstract

With proper immunosuppression, interspecies transplantation of porcine as well as other species of neural cells survive, mature, and integrate into the host in a manner which reconstructs much of the appropriate neural circuitry. These transplants have been shown to alleviate many of the symptoms of various disorders of the central nervous system. In this study, we addressed immunological and maturation issues with regards to intracerebral transplantation of fetal porcine neural cells. First, we compared fetal neural xenograft survival in athymic nude rats versus rats immunosuppressed with cyclosporin A and found that there is little discernible difference between porcine grafts in the 2 recipients. We also found that ectopic transplantation of cells isolated from the porcine striatal primordium can survive and develop into grafts composed of both neuronal and glial phenotypes within the rat hippocampus. This fact raises the possibility that cells of a particular neurotransmitter type (e.g., GABAergic cells) developing from the striatal precursor cells can be transplanted outside the striatum of the adult brain and have physiological effects.

Neural stem cells for cell replacement therapy for Huntington's disease

“…Identifying an appropriate growth factor cocktail appropriate to the phenotype associated with each particular application may be a necessary prelude to using these cells for transplantation. ENPs have been isolated from several species including mouse (Kilpatrick and Bartlett, 1993;Murphy et al, 1990;Reynolds and Weiss, 1992a), rat (Smith et al, 2003;Svendsen et al, 1995;Svendsen et al, 1997b), pig (Armstrong et al, 2001b;Armstrong et al, 2003b;Armstrong et al, 2002;Jacoby et al, 1997;Talbot et al, 2002), and human Bumstein et al, 2004;Carpenter et al, 1999;Carpenter et al, 2003;Englund et al, 2002b). There is cross species variation in the proliferative potential of ENPs (Svendsen et al, 1997b): Rat cells entered a state of senescence after a relatively short period of time, 30-40 days, in contrast to mouse and human cells that have the potential to proliferate for much longer periods of time in culture (Svendsen et al, 1997b).…”

Cell Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease: A Translational Approach to Assess the Role of Local and Systemic Immunosuppression

“…The brain has been considered an immune‐privileged site for decades, and the roles of T cell–mediated graft rejection and of the humoral immune response have been largely underestimated in clinical allografting trials to date. In the xenograft literature, however, several studies have suggested that porcine cells transplanted into the brain of rodents , nonhuman primates and patients activate the host immune system through peripheral and local presentation of xenoantigens to reactive T cells. Activated microglia and CD8+ T cells have been found to infiltrate porcine neural xenografts, even under cyclosporine immunosuppression .…”