Fetal Cells Help Parkinson’s (Ivanhoe First)

By Julie Monheim, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Sixteen years ago, researchers from the University of Colorado in Denver performed the first fetal cell transplantation for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Now, new research shows that procedure is helping some patients get rid of their medications altogether.

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic neurological disease that impairs mobility. Patients with Parkinson’s lack the chemical dopamine, which is necessary for movement. Fetal cell transplantation involves transplanting aborted human fetal tissue to replace the lost dopamine-producing cells to help restore movement.

Curt Freed, M.D., from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, has followed patients since the procedure was first performed. He tells Ivanhoe: “Transplants are not instantaneous. Transplanted cells actually grow over a period of years. Their fibers grow out.”

Dr. Freed has observed what he calls a “two-thirds” effect in patients who undergo the fetal cell transplant. He says: “Typical patients who had the transplant do two-thirds of what their previous treatment with levodopa did, so it raised their base from being unable to move to being able to do about two-thirds as well as when they were taking the levodopa. So, you can look at it as replacing two-thirds of the drug.”

Levodopa (Dopar or Larodopa) is the gold standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease. While the drug offers substantial relief, research shows it tends to lose its effectiveness after five to 10 years of use.

Dr. Freed tells Ivanhoe, after one year, the transplant is equivalent to about 30-percent of the levodopa people take. After two years, it’s equivalent to about 50 percent. By the third year, the procedure’s effect is about 60 percent, or two-thirds, the effect of the drug. He says, “That’s enough for some people to stop taking their drugs.”

Dr. Freed says one of his patients who underwent the fetal cell transplant defied all odds. “He stopped taking his drugs altogether and still worked as a full-time electrician. About two-and-a-half years after the transplant, he was working on the 34th floor of the first World Trade Center Tower. Most people with any disabilities died in that collapse, but he was able to run down 33 flights of stairs just like everyone else, and then he ran five blocks to escape the falling building … So, that two-thirds effect really represented a cure for his Parkinson’s.”

Dr. Freed says one negative effect of the fetal transplant is it often allows patients too much movement. “When they have the transplant, they could have extra movement because it's doing the same thing as the drug.”

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe Interview with Curt Freed, M.D., from the University of Colorado, Denver