Abstract
Based on a novel staining technique, with the unique possibility to visualize individual neurons based on their neurotransmitter content, an interest in the plasticity of the central nervous system was raised in Sweden in the late 1960s. The histochemical technique of Falck-Hillarp was very powerful, and could demonstrate sprouting and other phenomena in after experimental damage of catecholamine-containing neurons in the brain. In order to study the limitations and possibilities of central nervous system plasticity, number of lesioning and development studies were performed. Transplantation of immature neural tissue was performed in order to study the properties of immature neurons. In 1975, Björklund and collaborators (1) showed consistent survival of grafted embryonic catecholaminergic neurons implanted into the brain of adult rats and also reinnervation of the grafts and the host brain from the grafts. These observations were taken further and applied in the Ungerstedt unilateral 6-OHDA-treated rat model of parkinsonism (2), an animal model of dopamine depletion. In 1979, two groups demonstrated that embryonic dopaminergic neural tissue, obtained from the ventral mesencphalic region of rat fetuses, could reverse symptoms of dopamine depletion in the Ungerstedt rat model after transplantation (3,4). The rotational imbalance in the rat was counteracted by the presence of a graft, and the functional improvement disappeared when the graft was destroyed. Several modifications of the technique have then been tested and applied subsequently (5). As reviewed previously, the mechanisms of graft function and extent of functional recovery depend on a number of critical factors (6, 7).
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Widner, H. (1998). The Lund Transplant Program for Parkinson’s Disease and Patients with MPTP-Induced Parkinsonism. In: Freeman, T.B., Widner, H. (eds) Cell Transplantation for Neurological Disorders. Contemporary Neuroscience. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-476-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-476-4_1
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