SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Gains Told in Parkinson’s Therapy

The first U.S. patient to receive a graft of fetal brain tissue as therapy for Parkinson’s disease has shown substantial improvement in the 15 months since the surgery, Dr. Curt R. Freed, a neurologist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, reported last week in the Archives of Neurology.

Parkinson’s disease, which affects as many as 500,000 Americans, results from the loss of brain cells that secrete the hormone dopamine. Its symptoms include tremors and rigidity of the limbs. The experimental therapy involves transplanting dopamine-secreting cells from aborted fetuses into the brain.

The patient, 53-year-old Don Nelson of Denver, now requires 45% less medicine than before the surgery, Freed said. Before the surgery, he required two arm braces to walk; now he walks without assistance, although he sometimes uses a cane for balance.

Swedish physicians recently reported similar success with two Parkinson’s patients who received grafts of fetal tissue.