Anders Björklund

TL;DR: The action of cholinergic neurons in the graft onto elements in the host hippocampal circuitry may be a necessary, but perhaps not sufficient, prerequisite for the observed functional recovery in aged rats with severe impairments in spatial learning abilities.

TL;DR: It is shown that hESC-derived dopamine neurons can project sufficiently long distances for use in humans, fully regenerate midbrain-to-forebrain projections, and innervate correct target structures, providing strong preclinical support for clinical translation of hESCs using approaches similar to those established with fetal cells for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

TL;DR: These trials showed unequivocally that human fetal dopaminergicneurons can survive and function for more than 10 years inthe striatum of patients with PD and show no signs of beingaffected by the ongoing disease process.

TL;DR: It is concluded that transplantation of embryonic mesencephalic tissue leads to highly reproducible survival of dopaminergic neurons, inducing clinically valuable improvements in most recipients.

TL;DR: It is suggested that neurturin (NTN), a homolog of GDNF, is expressed in the nigrostriatal system, and that NTN exerts potent effects on survival and function of midbrain DA neurons and point to the possibility that GDNF and NTN may exert redundant trophic influences on nigral DA neurons acting via a receptor complex that includes GFRα1.