Cyclosporin A increases survival of cross-species intrastriatal grafts of embryonic dopamine-containing neurons

• The survival and function of cross-species (mouse-to-rat) grafts of fetal mesencephalic dopamine (DA) neurons, implanted as a cell suspension in the striatum of rats with lesions of the mesostriatal DA system, have been studied in animals with and without immunosuppression induced by Cyclosporin A (CyA). At 6 weeks after grafting 3 out of 7 non-CyA treated animals showed some degree of graft survival and variable functional compensation. In those three animals an average of 92 DA neurons per graft was counted. In the grafted animals treated with daily CyA injections, all grafts survived and produced partial or complete functional compensation, and they had an average of 557 DA neurons per graft. It is concluded that intracerebral graft survival and function can be greatly improved by CyA treatment and that the immunological protection of neural transplants in the brain is only partial.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Neurovetenskaper (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Neurosciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Animals

Cyclosporins/pharmacology

Dopamine/physiology

Female

Graft Survival/drug effects

Hydroxydopamines

Mesencephalon/transplantation

Mice

Mice, Inbred A

Oxidopamine

Parkinson Disease, Secondary/chemically induced

Rats

Rats, Inbred Strains

Transplantation, Heterologous

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)