In a major breakthrough for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, researchers working with laboratory rats show it is possible to make dopamine cells from embryonic stem cells and transplant them into the brain, replacing the cells lost to the disease.

Share on Pinterest Researchers say it is possible to make dopamine cells from human embryonic stem cells, paving the way for a new treatment for Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by the gradual loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain. Dopamine is a brain chemical that, among other things, helps regulate movement and emotional responses.

There are no cures for Parkinson’s disease; there are drugs that ease symptoms, but none that slow it down. Deep brain stimulation can alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s in certain patients.

Human embryonic stem cells – precursor cells that have the potential to become any cell of the body – are a promising source of new dopamine cells, but they have proved difficult to harness for this purpose.

Now, a breakthrough study from Lund University in Sweden shows it is possible to get human embryonic stem cells to produce a new generation of dopamine cells that behave like native dopamine cells when transplanted into the brains of rats.

Study leader Malin Parmar, associate professor in Lund’s Department of Medicine, and colleagues report their findings in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

“The study shows that the cells that we generate from stem cells, they function equally as well as the cells that we find in the brain,” says Prof. Parmar.

The team says the new cells show all the properties and functions of the dopamine neurons that are lost in Parkinson’s disease, and the potentially unlimited supply sourced from stem cell lines opens the door to clinical application.

For their study, the researchers carried out experiments in rat models of Parkinson’s disease. To produce a rat model of Parkinson’s, researchers destroy the dopamine cells in one part of the rat’s brain.

The experiments showed that dopamine cells made from human embryonic stem cells, when transplanted into the rats’ brains, behaved like native dopamine cells. The authors note that the transplanted cells:

Survived in the long term and restored production of dopamine in the brain

Functioned in a similar way to dopamine cells of the “human fetal midbrain”

Are capable of producing long distance links to the correct parts of the brain

The axons that they grow “meet the requirements for use in humans.”

The researchers explain their findings further in the video below: