Submitted on January 24, 2008
Accepted on May 23, 2008
TRANSLATIONAL AND CLINICAL RESEARCH
|
Olfactory Mucosa is a Potential Source for Autologous Stem Cell Therapy for Parkinson's Disease
Wayne Murrell 1*,
Andrew Wetzig 1,
Michael Donnellan 1,
François Féron 2,
Tom Burne 3,
Adrian Meedeniya 1,
James Kesby 4,
John Bianco 1,
Chris Perry 5,
Peter Silburn 6,
Alan Mackay-Sim 1
1 National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111 Australia.
2 NICN, CNRS UMR6184, IFR Jean Roche & Centre d'Investigations Cliniques en Biothérapie CIC-B 150, AP-HM - Institut Paoli Calmettes - Inserm, Université de la Méditerranée, France
3 National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111 Australia.; School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
4 School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
5 Department of Otolaryngology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, QLD 4101 Australia.
6 National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111 Australia.; School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Wayne.Murrell{at}rr-research.no.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Parkinson's disease is a complex disorder characterised by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra in the brain. Stem cell transplantation is aimed at replacing dopaminergic neurons because the most successful drug therapies affect these neurons and their synaptic targets. We show here that neural progenitors can be grown from the olfactory organ of persons even with Parkinson's disease. These neural progenitors proliferated and generated dopaminergic cells in vitro. They also generated dopaminergic cells when transplanted into the brain and reduced the behavioural asymmetry induced by ablation of the dopaminergic neurons in the rat model of Parkinson's disease. Our results indicate that Parkinson's patients could provide their own source of neuronal progenitors for cell transplantation therapies and for direct investigation of the biology and treatments of Parkinson's disease.
Key Words.
Parkinson's disease, olfactory stem cell, autologous cell therapy, dopaminergic
