Parkinson's Disease Dental Pulp Cells May Hold Key To Treatment

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Parkinson's Disease Dental Pulp Cells May Hold Key To Treatment
The Medical News Today, UK
05 May 2004

Cells derived from the inside of a tooth might someday prove an effective way 
to treat the brains of people suffering
from Parkinson's disease.

A study in the May 1 issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience shows dental 
pulp cells provide great support for
nerve cells lost in Parkinson's disease and could be transplanted directly into 
the affected parts of the brain. The
study's lead author is Christopher Nosrat, an assistant professor of biological 
and materials sciences at the
University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

This is not the first test of stem cells as a therapy for Parkinson's 
disease-type illnesses, known as
neurodegenerative diseases, but Nosrat noted that it is the first to use 
post-natal stem cells grown from more readily
available tooth pulp in the nervous system.

Using dental pulp has other advantages besides its availability, Nosrat said. 
The cells produce a host of beneficial
"neurotrophic" factors, which promote nerve cell survival.

Parkinson's disease is characterized by symptoms including tremors of the 
hands, arms or legs, rigidity of the body and
difficulty balancing while standing or walking. Parkinson's affects nerve cells 
in the part of the brain called the
basal ganglia, which is responsible for control of voluntary movement. An 
estimated 1 million Americans suffer from
Parkinson's disease, for which there is no cure.

Nosrat's study involved evaluating the potential of injecting tooth cells into 
brain cells as a possible cell-based
therapy for Parkinson's. He was testing whether the tooth cells could provide 
neurotrophic factors to support dying
nerve cells and replace dead cells.

Nosrat also has studied dental pulp stem cells as a treatment for spinal cord 
injuries and said applying that knowledge
to treatment of neurodegenerative disease was the next logical step.

He used the same general approach for this Parkinson's study: researchers 
extract a tooth and draw cells from the
center of the tooth, then culture them in a Petri dish to increase the number 
of the cells. The cell mixture then
contains neuronal precursor cells and cells that produce beneficial 
neurotrophic factors.

Nosrat emphasized that there is much work to be done before human patients 
might find relief from Parkinson's symptoms
as a result of this therapy. It is still many years from being tested in people 
as a possible treatment or cure for
neurological disorders.

Previous studies have used other sources for stem cells, and in animal and 
human studies, most of those cells die when
grafted into the brain. Nosrat believes cells drawn from dental pulp are more 
robust because they also produce the
neurotrophic factors, which promote nerve cell survival. Nosrat hopes that by 
refining the delivery method---by
focusing the treatment much more specifically on affected parts of the brain 
and the co-delivery of neurotrophic
factors---he can eventually achieve success.

European Journal of Neuroscience is the official journal for the federation of 
European neuroscience societies:


The article is titled "Dental pulp cells provide neurotrophic support for 
dopaminergic neurons and differentiate into
neurons in vitro, implications for tissue engineering and repair in the nervous 
system."

Nosrat's co-authors are his wife, Irina Nosrat, Christopher Smith and Patrick 
Mullally, at the U-M School of Dentistry,
and Lars Olson at the Karolinksa Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Partial funding for the study came from the National Institute of Dental and 
Craniofacial Research, part of the
National Institutes of Health, as well as from the Michigan Parkinson's 
Foundation.

Nosrat's faculty profile: 

A release on Nosrat's work in spinal cord injuries:


Producers: U-M has professional TV studios and uplink capabilities.

The University of Michigan
News Service
412 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399

Contact: Colleen Newvine
cnewvine@xxxxxxxxx
734-647-4411
University of Michigan

SOURCE: The Medical News Today, UK


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