Neural Transplantation as a Strategy for Recovery of CNS Functions

Transplants of neural tissue have been used for nearly 100 years in order to clarify the mechanisms that underlie development and regeneration of the nervous system. With reports from Sweden and Mexico that autografts of adrenal medulla produce at least transient and perhaps dramatic improve­ment in patients severly disabled by Parkinson's disease, the techniques of neural transplantation have escaped from the laboratory and become of practical interest to clinicians. Understanding the back­ground for thls therapeutic approach is particularly timely, not only because transplantation is used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease but it has been reported to produce improvement in animal models for Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease and spinal cord injuries. As a Conclusionwe can say: {1) patients survive at least 4-5 years following adrenal autotran­splantation to brain. (2) Major immunological or other rejection problems do not appear when adrenal auto-trans plantation is performed, (3) The greatest success up to now appears to occur when adrenal is transplanted adjacent to lateral ventricle in the head of the caudate in young patients who sust11in significant host brain injury, ( 4) Surely more patients will go under operation before the operations have been proven to be beneficial. A controlled prospective double blind study with specific end points is needed. Even more pressing however is the need for much more animal experimentation to clarify the essential parameters for successful transplantation.