Brain Grafts Reduce Motor Abnormalities Produced by Destruction of Nigrostriatal Dopamine System

In order to determine if brain tissue grafts can provide functional input to recipient central nervous system tissue, fetal rat dopamine-containing neurons were implanted adjacent to the caudate nucleus of adult recipients whose endogenous dopaminergic input had been destroyed. The grafts showed good survival and axonal outgrowth. Motor abnormalities, which had been induced by the destruction of the endogenous dopaminergic input to the caudate, were significantly reduced after grafting of the fetal brain tissue. These data suggest that such implants may be potentially useful in reversing deficits after circumscribed destruction of brain tissue.