Julian L Goggi, Lifeng Qiu, Mei Chih Liao, Shivashankar Khanapur, Lingfan Jiang, Ramasamy Boominathan, Siddesh V Hartimath, Peter Cheng, Fui Fong Yong, Vanessa Soh, Xiaozhou Deng, Youshan Melissa Lin, Anna Haslop, Peng Wen Tan, Xiaoxia Zeng, Jolene W L Lee, Zhiwei Zhang, Pragalath Sadasivam, Eng King Tan, Sajinder K Luthra, William D Shingleton, Steve K W Oh, Li Zeng, Edward G Robins
BACKGROUND: Significant developments in stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD) have already been achieved; however, methods for reliable assessment of dopamine neuron maturation in vivo are lacking. Establishing the efficacy of new cellular therapies using non-invasive methodologies will be critical for future regulatory approval and application. The current study examines the utility of neuroimaging to characterise the in vivo maturation, innervation and functional dopamine release of transplanted human embryonic stem cell-derived midbrain dopaminergic neurons (hESC-mDAs) in a preclinical model of PD...
August 8, 2020: Stem Cell Research & Therapy