Transplantation of Long-Term Cultured Sympathetic Neurons into the Brains of Parkinsonian Rats

Functional recovery has been achieved in animal models of Parkinson’s disease by transplantation of the sympathetic ganglia, encouraging us to apply the graft therapy to patients with Parkinson’s disease/1/. In this situation, it is extremely important to maintain donor tissue in culture prior to grafting because in vitro culturing methods give an opportunity to manipulate donor tissue, thereby optimizing conditions for graft survival and function. The present study was designed to evaluate the potential of sympathetic ganglia after being cultured in vitro as a donor tissue for transplantation into the brain of parkinsonian rats.