Abstract
The aim of stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD) is to reconstruct local synapse formation and/or induce the release of dopamine and cytokines from grafted cells in the putamen. Fetal ventral-midbrain cells are reported to relieve the neurological symptoms of PD patients. However, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are expected to provide an alternative donor cell population because of their capacity for self-renewal and pluripotency. A protocol to generate dopaminergic (DA) neurons from iPSCs has been developed, and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were proven to function in the brain of rat and monkey PD models. We have developed a method to isolate DA neuron progenitors as a donor cell population, which will enable us to perform trial demonstrating the allogenic transplantation of HLA-homozygous iPS cell-derived DA neurons for PD patients.
