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View Full Version : Parkinson's Disease Treatment through Stem Cell


perfecttreatment01
03-03-2011, 05:56 PM
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic disorder of part of the brain. It is named after the doctor who first described it. It mainly affects the way the brain co-ordinates the movements of the muscles in various parts of the body.

What causes Parkinson’s disease? A small part of the brain called the substantia nigra is mainly affected. This area of the brain sends messages down nerves in the spinal cord to help control the muscles of the body. Messages are passed between brain cells, nerves and muscles by chemicals called neurotransmitters. Dopamine is the main neurotransmitter that is made by the brain cells in the substantia nigra. If you have PD, a number of cells in the substantia nigra become damaged and die. The exact cause of this is not known. Over time, more and more cells become damaged and die. As cells are damaged, the amount of dopamine that is produced is reduced. A combination of the reduction of cells and a low level of dopamine in the cells in this part of the brain causes nerve messages to the muscles to become slowed and abnormal.

International medical provider resource Placidway helped such patients find Integra and Dr. Omar D. Gonzalez. Currently, Dr. Gonzalez is treating Parkinson's patients who have different levels of deterioration. These patients are not only experiencing improvements in their coordination, including balance, tremor, and dementia, but also other general aspects of the condition such as depression and lack of vitality. Dr. Gonzalez agrees with many other doctors who believe that Parkinson's will be a public health issue in coming years, especially in developed countries.

Stem cell-based therapies for Parkinson's disease are not yet a routine clinical procedure. Scientists are agreed that more information is needed about the causes of Parkinson’s disease and the biology of stem cells before safe, effective and long-lasting therapies can be developed. Stem cells could also help Parkinson's patients by contributing to the discovery of novel drugs, which would have a much wider impact than cell therapies. We can now get embryonic-like stem cells from adults through a method called "reprogramming". By reprogramming a sample of adult, specialized cells from a patient, we can make so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell. These iPS cells can make any type of cell found in the body, including dopaminergic neurons. Scientists are now making iPS cells from people with Parkinson’s disease and using them to produce neurons in the laboratory. The aim is to learn more about why these nerve cells die in Parkinson's disease, and to use the cells to test for substances that could be developed into new drugs.