Funded Studies
Objective/Rationale:
Advances in the knowledge and treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) are limited by the inability to obtain, grow and study neural cells from the brains of living patients. Small samples of brain tissue may be safely collected from PD patients at the time of deep brain stimulation surgery. The objective of this study is to develop human neural cultures from these brain biopsies, and to characterize the physiology and investigational potential of the harvested cells.
Project Description:
PD patients selected for deep brain stimulation will be invited to participate in this research. Cortical biopsies will be retrieved in the operating room and immediately processed for cell culture. Tissue processing conditions will favor growth of astrocytes, a form of glial cell known to retain the capacity to divide in the adult brain and recently implicated in PD. Culture conditions will be varied to test for growth of different cell types. Gene expression, growth and handling properties of the harvested cells will be evaluated.
Relevance to Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease:
This work has exciting implications in that these cells may be used to evaluate contemporary issues in PD research previously reliant on pre-clinical models. Among other advantages, measures of cell physiology and genetics, and the functional effects of gene targeting and response to novel and conventional PD therapies will be feasible on an individual and population basis.
Anticipated Outcome:
This study is expected to provide proof-of-principle evidence that human neural cells may be grown from small tissue samples safely obtained from the brains of living PD patients. Future studies will build on this founding data and provide insight into human PD pathology and new methods of treatment.