Transplant improves hemiparkinsonian syndrome in nonhuman primate: Intracerebral injection, rotometry, tyrosine hydroxylase immunohistochemistry

This chapter describes the methods for creating a unilateral DA lesion by direct injection of neurotoxin into substantia nigra, and for collecting quantitative behavioral data using a rotometer, and using these methods to test the efficacy of fetal nigral cell-suspension transplants. The histopathological results reveal that there is no evidence of immune rejection of the grafts as judged by the absence of lymphocytes, neutrophils, or macrophages. The behavioral changes observed in the monkey are believed to be related to the transplant, but it is not known why the improvement occurred so soon after the transplant, or why it ended so quickly. It is impossible to state with any certainty that the excess dopamine (DA) cells on the lesioned and transplanted side represent surviving transplanted cells, which migrated from the original graft site toward the ventricle. However, it is possible that the lesion alone results in a transformation or induction of endogenous tyrosine hydroxylase-like immunoreactive (TH-LI) cells, but this question will require investigation of additional transplantation animals and lesion controls.