Stem Cell Therapy in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Stem cells are undeveloped cells without mature, tissue-specific characteristics that are able to proliferate, to reproduce themselves and to produce generations of progenitor cells, which can differentiate into one or more specialized cell types. India is an emerging player in the stem cell arena. The research and therapeutic applications of stem cell has been growing rapidly in recent years and scientists have for years looked for ways to use stem cells to replace cells and tissues that are damaged or diseased. Stem cells have shown great promise in treatment of debilitating diseases like heart diseases, liver diseases, stroke, spinal injuries, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, retinal degeneration, muscular dystrophy, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by tremors, rigidity, and hypokinesia. The main pathology underlying disease symptoms in PD is a rather selective degeneration of nigrostriatal neurons leading to severe loss of dopamine (DA) in the striatum. At present, drug treatments and surgery cannot fundamentally solve the problem. With the development of cell replacement therapy, medical professionals are exploring treatment by restoration of dopamine neurotransmitters in the neural circuitry of patients with PD by getting dopaminergic neurons and cell transplantation. The clinical studies with intrastriatal transplants of fetal mesencephalic tissue in PD patients have provided proof-of-principle for the cell replacement strategy in this disorder. The grafted dopaminergic neurons can reinnervate the denervated striatum, restore regulated dopamine (DA) release and movement-related frontal cortical activation, and give rise to significant symptomatic relief.