Case 4 – Fink: Porcine Xenografts in Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease patients

Abstract

Fink, J.S. et al. (2000): Porcine xenografts in Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease patients: preliminary results. Cell Transplantation 9 (2), pp. 273-278 Foetal neurons are able to survive and function when transplanted into the adult brain. The authors propose cellular therapy as a promising approach to achieve neuronal replacement in order to treat diseases of the adult central nervous system. This approach has been shown to be efficacious in patients with Parkinson's disease after transplantation of human foetal neurons. (Lindvall et al. 1990) but the use of human foetal tissue is limited by various ethical, infectious, regulatory, and practical concerns. Pigs are used as an alternative source of foetal neuronal tissue because of their brain size, large litters, and the extensive experience in rearing them in captivity under controlled conditions.