Cell replacement therapy using ES cells Potential application to the treatment of Parkinson's disease

  Department of Medical Embryology and Neurobiology, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University / The SASAI laboratory Corporate Communication Department, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.

  Prof. Yoshiki Sasai and Dr. Hiroshi Kawasaki, Department of Medical Embryology and Neurobiology, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, have successfully developed a technique for selectively and efficiently producing neurons from mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells), in collaboration with Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine (Prof. Shin-ichi Nishikawa, Prof. Shigetada Nakanishi, and Dr. Satoshi Kaneko), Center for Developmental Biology, RIKEN (Group Director: Prof. Yoshiki Sasai), and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. (President: Dr. Tadashi Hirata). In addition, the application of this technique has enabled speedy induction of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Having the ability to respond to external stimulation and release dopamine, a neurotransmitter, these midbrain dopaminergic neurons integrated into the striatum of the mouse brain and remained functional after implantation.

  Recently, much attention has been focused on the transplantation of dopaminergic neurons into parkinsonian patients that has been shown to exhibit a high therapeutic efficacy in a clinical trial conducted in the US. It is expected that the newly developed technique will greatly contribute to the development of a new therapeutic approach to Parkinson's disease.

  ES cells, which are capable of differentiating into various tissues depending on experimental conditions, attract increasing attention as universal cells to be used in the future cell replacement therapy. However, since it is very difficult to efficiently induce ES cells to differentiate into transplantable cells, the development of a new technique has been hoped for. The present technique suggests the possibility that cell replacement therapy will make significant progress, and therapeutic application of ES cells, in particular, is expected to benefit from it substantially.

  The details of the present study were published in a scientific journal " Neuron " issued on October 26, 2000.