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Reply to "Transplanted dopaminergic neurons: More or less?"

Nature Medicine volume 7, pages 512–513 (2001)Cite this article

Freed and colleagues reply

In our double-blind, placebo-controlled surgical trial of fetal tissue implants for Parkinson disease1 (40 patients, 20 transplant subjects and 20 sham surgery controls), we found that transplants survived in 85% of patients regardless of age and without immunosuppression. In a preplanned division of patients into younger (≤ 60 years) and older (> 60) subjects, younger patients had highly significant improvement in standardized tests of Parkinson disease with the unified Parkinson disease rating scale (UPDRS) total 'off' improving 28% (P < 0.01) and the UPDRS motor 'off' component improving 34% (P < 0.0005). There were no changes in the placebo group. By three years after transplant, the total 'off' scores for the younger group showed further improvement to 38% (P = 0.004). Older patients did not improve as a group, though individuals did. Our study is the largest reported to date and the only controlled trial. Of 20 sham surgery patients, 14 have chosen to receive transplants after the double-blind phase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, USA

    C.R. Freed & R.E. Breeze

  2. College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

    P. Greene, S. Fahn & W.-Y. Tsai

  3. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    J.Q. Trojanowski

  4. North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York, USA

    D. Eidelberg

Authors
  1. C.R. Freed
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  2. R.E. Breeze
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  3. P. Greene
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  4. S. Fahn
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  7. D. Eidelberg
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Freed, C., Breeze, R., Greene, P. et al. Reply to "Transplanted dopaminergic neurons: More or less?". Nat Med 7, 512–513 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/87798

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