Parkinson's study to use skin cells
Wednesday, July 14 11:31 am
The skin cells will be genetically reset to "zero" before being launched on a new development path.
This turns them into stem cells with the same properties as those found in early stage embryos, which have the ability to develop into virtually any kind of body tissue.
Scientists hope to use them to grow neurons that produce the brain-signalling chemical dopamine.
Parkinson's disease is said to be triggered when dopamine neurons die off, upsetting the control of muscle movements.
The disease is characterised by tremors, stiffness and lack of balance.
A team led by Richard Wade-Martins, head of the Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre, plans to recruit more than 1,000 patients with early stage symptoms.
He said: "Induced pluripotent stem cells provide new and exciting opportunities to grow and study dopamine neurons from patients for the first time. This technology will prove to be extremely important in diseases which affect the brain because of its relative inaccessibility - it's far easier to get a skin sample than a brain biopsy.
"Once we have neurons from patients we can compare the functioning of cells taken from patients with the disease and those without to better understand why dopamine neurons die in patients with Parkinson's."
Details of the five-year research programme were presented at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science meeting in Nottingham.
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