Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 27 February 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5355, p. 1301
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5355.1301
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

News

NEUROBIOLOGY:
Unusual Cells May Help Treat Parkinson's Disease

Marcia Barinaga

Scientists may have discovered a potential new treatment for Parkinson's disease, the degenerative brain condition that strikes 1% to 2% of people over age 65. In the February issue of Neuron, a research team reports that transplanting into the brains of rats cells from the carotid body, an organ that signals the brain to step up breathing if oxygen levels drop too low, reverses the symptoms of experimentally caused Parkinson's disease. Although carotid-body cells will have to pass many more tests before researchers can even consider trying them in patients, Parkinson's researchers say they may do a better job of correcting the defect of Parkinson's than do the fetal-brain cells sometimes used as a treatment--and they raise fewer ethical questions.

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)